
Book. . F (? 3 



G)piglit]^i'. 



CDSmiGKT DEPOSm 



(;P0 



TO 

HASSAN H. WHEELER, Esq. 

OF 

BROOKLYN, N. Y. 

A "gextlemax player," who has 

ENTERED, PASSED, AND RAISED MANY A 

JACK-POT 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY 

THE AUTHOR 






0'^ 



PREFACE. 



At Eastbourne^ on the English coast, one 
evening in August last some gentlemen sat down 
to a friendly game of poker. It was urged by 
one of the party that a book should be written 
in which the rules governing the game should 
be succinctly expressed. Some one said it would 
take a year to complete such a work. Where- 
upon the writer said it could be done in a month. 
This led to considerable discussion, and in a 
bantering manner a bet was proposed and accept- 
ed, that it could be written inside of four weeks. 
This little book is the result of that wager. 

W. J. Flore;n"ce. 

Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, 
September, 1891. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction 1 

Okigin of the Game 10 

The Game 12 

.'^ Stakes 14 

" Blind 15 

" Hands 19 

Playing a Hand Pat 20 

The Hands Illustrated. 

Hand No. 1 22 

" 2 . . . 23 

" 3 24 

" 4 24 

ff 5 25 

" 6 26 

" 7 27 

" 8 28 

" 9 29 

'' 10 29 

" 1 30 

Drawing. 

The Draw 31 

// // TO Two Pairs 33 

'' " " Threes 34 

" " " A Full 35 

'' " " A Bobtail 36 

The Betting and Bluffing .,...•..• 36 



X CONTEKTS. 

PAGE 

Jack-pots 38 

Penalties in Pokeii 41 

Varieties of Poker. 

Straight Poker 42 

Stud " 42 

Whisky " 43 

Poker Sharps 45 

Marked Cards 47 

Poker-Dice 51 

Schenck on Poker 54 

Schenck's Rules for Playing Poker ... 55 

A Summary of Schenck's Rules .... 63 

Value of Hands at Poker 69 

No Pairs 69 

One Pair , 70 

Two Pairs 70 

Threes or Triplets 71 

The Straight 71 

Flush 72 

The Full 72 

Fours 72 

The Straight Flush 73 

Recapitulation 73 

How the Game is Played 74 

The Elder Hand 82 

Of Drawing • • • . 87 

Probabilities 88 

Technical Terms 89 

The Jack-pot 91 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE 

The Steaddle 96 

" Age 97 

Advice to Players 98 

Position and Probabilities 100 

Playing the Pat Hand Ill 

Pushing Your Luck 113 

Questions at Poker 115 

Table Stakes 116 

The Freeze-out 117 

The Widow, or Kitty 118 

Buck 119 

Poker Principles and Chance Laws, by Proctor. 121 

Straight Poker 136 

Stud " • . . = 137 

Whisky " 137 

MiSTIGRIS . 138 

Tiger 138 

Anecdotes on Poker 143 



DRAW POKER. 



INTRODUCTION. 

*' We must speak by the card. 
Or equivocation wUl undo us^ 

Hamlet. Act F., Scene 1st. 

The game of Poker has become popular dur- 
ing the last two decades^ and is now known in 
almost every civilized land. I have seen it 
played by the donkey boys in the streets of 
Cairo and by the Pi-Ute Indians on the plains 
of Nevada. I was present on one occasion 
when a poker party was made up of a reign- 
ing monarchy a future king, and three princes 
imperial. That might well be called a ^^ royal 
flush.^^ 

That the game which could hold such com- 
petitors must be a fascinating one cannot be 
denied. It is indeed held by some to be the 
most dangerous of all games of cards, since it can 
only be played for stakes ; but it must be remem- 
bered that this is true of all games in which the 
player conceals the value of the cards he holds. 



2 POKER. 



To the objection that poker is an unsocial game, 
since it admits of no partners, each participant 
striving for himself alone, it is to be said that 
for this very reason poker absorbs its players 
with a deep fascination. Since one object of the 
game is to mystify your adversaries as to the 
value of your hand, and as all sorts of chaflE and 
badinage are permitted, it cannot, after all, be 
termed an unsociable amusement. Nonsense 
may fly from tongue to tongue, fast and furious, 
to any extent, providing it does not delay the 
game. Then, where a hand shown down detects 
its owner^s late futile attempt to mislead the 
table a rousing laugh usually follows, so that the 
fun is always kept up. Of course one may have 
a bad-tempered or a churlish companion at table ; 
but such a one usually gets the worst of it when 
he betrays his peevishness. 

As in any game of chance or speculation, 
there are in poker opportunities to cheat. Long 
before poker, however, was even invented, cheat- 
ing at chance games was practiced by the unprin- 
cipled. I have seen loaded dice taken from the 
ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum and now 
preserved in the Government Museum at Naples ; 
so poker is not responsible for all the charges 
brought against it. 

It is well, however, to be careful about going 
into a game of poker on an ocean steamer, in 



POKER, 



a railway carriage, or a western hotel without 
some knowledge of your companions. 

But with a party of gentlemen and for limited 
stakes, poker is a fascinating and harmless pas- 
time. While a number of books have been writ- 
ten about it, none can claim absolute authority, 
though the rules of the game are really simple. 
The deviations, alterations, and amended allow- 
ances, and the fact that almost any party sitting 
down to play may and often does make its own 
rules about certain matters, render poker a by 
no means easy game. Such rules, for example, 
as those relating to the value of a ^^ straight, ^^ 
playing ^^ around the corner,^' '^passing the 
buck," ^^ blazes,"^ and ^^ jack-pots, "* are prede- 
termined according to the desires of the players. 
It is to fix the positive and long-accepted statutes 
of the game that this book is written, the rules 
herein set forth having been sanctioned by the 
best custom wherever draw poker is played in its 
integrity. 

An authority on poker says : 

^^ Of all methods of livelihood or dissipation 
or amusement, perhaps there is none about which 
so much untruth passes current as about gam- 
bling. Every now and then the newspapers take 
to a run of gaming stories, and it is the excep- 
tion when one of these has the least element of 
fact to sustain it. To the mind of a certain 



POKER. 



crude reportorial youth, in whose eyes the race- 
course is a paradise and every turfman a hero, 
all games of chance possess a peculiar fascina- 
tion, and if he can fasten to a game of hearsay 
some individual particular or personal anecdote, 
he fancies that his fortune is made, and neither 
thinks nor cares to discriminate in the matter of 
accuracy or propriet}^ That there are degrees in 
card-playing, or varying sensibilities among those 
who with differing aims play at cards, or any 
virtue in sticking to the truth, does not occur 
to him, and as in this, like other fairy tales, it 
is as easy to sj)eak of millions as of pennies, the 
amounts at issue are only limited by the imagi- 
nation of the recountant. Thus : ' The Col- 
onel went him a thousand dollars, and the Judge 
raised him five thousand better, and the Colonel 
called, and the Judge only had a pair of deuces, 
and^ — when, if there was any such passage at 
all, the figures might be reduced to mills — still 
largely to exceed the amounts actually at stake. 

'^ Again, the writers of these gaming stories 
seldom have any knowledge of the subject, and, 
writing at second-hand, fall into the most egre- 
gious errors ; and their readers, being for the 
most part equally ignorant, form the most fan- 
tastic notions of gambling and of the gambler, 
both professional and amateur. 

^^The reputation for gambling long survives 



POKER. 



the abandonment of the habit of gambling. It 
is not generally known^ though it is a fact^ that 
the most famous of the nonprofessional gamblers 
of history^ Charles James ¥ox, did not play for 
money after his forty-third year^ devoting the 
most of his life to a useful^ eminent^ and bril- 
liant public service, but never eradicating his 
early reputation. Indeed, it can be set down as 
a rule that nothing does its work so quickly and 
so surely as high play. He who persists in it, 
no matter how deep his pocket, will soon find 
the bottom of it ; for the essential principle of 
gambling is that it shall reach at least the meas- 
ure of the player^ s capacity to lose. In most 
cases it exceeds this, and in all, where it is con- 
tinued, it outlasts the capacity to pay, involving 
debt and ruin. Where these are not the finali- 
ties among amateurs and men claiming to be 
gentlemen, the abatement is to be found in an 
ever-increasing conservatism, narrowing down 
to merely nominal stakes or counters, and this is 
the history of every game that does not end in 
more or less of hardship and disgrace. 

^* Of professional gambling it can be said that 
no avocation involves so much of despotism, 
fickleness, and squalor. Eare, indeed, are the 
instances where the professional gambler would 
not be glad to lead a different life. He will tell 
you, and truly, that he was not born a gambler ; 



6 POKER. 



that he did not take to gambling for its own 
sake ; that he drifted into it, as it were, 
sometimes by mischance in business, sometimes 
through the encroachments of half-unconscious 
dissipation, and sometimes from sheer indolence 
and love of easy and idle pleasure. A murrain 
on't ! The capacity for real and steady work 
diminished or gone ; the means of recuperation 
squandered, confidence forfeited, and reputation 
tarnished, what was left ? JSTothing but the card- 
table, no longer a magic circle of diversion and 
abandonment, but the grimy, back-breaking 
actuality of a defeated life, indefinite, endless, 
without any beginnings, or objective points, 
or ambitions that are not vulgar, venal, and 
corrupt, or victories that are not brutal and 
base. 

^'^Yet of all the vices, none is so easy of 
amendment, as none shows so many illustrations 
of reform. In the great cities most men have 
taken a turn at some form of gambling ; few who 
have not either thrown it off or brought it under 
regulation and control. Gaming is largely a 
habit, and a habit of association. It does not, 
like so many other vices, communicate directly 
any poison to the blood, though too often lead- 
ing to those that do. In its origin it is not with- 
out a certain manhood and humor, and hence in 
all ages and among all classes it has had an ex- 



POKER. 



istence. But at the very best it is open to the 
gravest objections. 

^^It is too absorbing, detaining players beyond 
their time^ and often from the most honorable 
motives. It is too confining, lacking the pure 
air and light of day, and j)ermeated by the fetid 
atmosphere of midnight and tobacco, where it 
does not descend into the health-destroying fumes 
of drink. It completely deadens the money- 
sense, and, in fact, the sense of all values ; and, 
where carried to the least excess, is a moral crime 
in exacting something for nothing. I will not 
add that it is provocative of a great talent for 
domestic lying, and an incalculable amount of it, 
because it may be doubted whether the loving 
wife who listens with moist eyes to the sad story 
of the sick friend is deceived as much and as 
often as she pretends to be. Assuredly not in 
Kentucky, where be sure the women of two or 
three generations have not lived wholly in vain, 
and where, in every case, it would be well for the 
recusant husband to pay no heed to the counsel 
of the Kentucky journalist, of whom tradition 
relates that, on a certain occasion, he observed 
to the friend with whom he was about to sepa- 
rate at the street corner which divided their 
respective homes : ^ I have always made it a 
rule, Isaac, to go to my wife and tell her the 
truth ; it is much the best way, believe me ; 



8 POKER. 



and so^ as soon as I get in^ I mean to put a bold 
face on it and frankly say that the press broke 
down ! ^ 

'^ Fictions like these^ however ingenious and 
maintained, have no power to mislead such 
ladies as the astute Bluegrass matron^ who, after 
allowing her husband to disrobe in fancied se- 
curity, and to sit rocking the cradle on the 
edge of the bed until nearly frozen by the cun- 
ning attempt at deception, at last exclaimed : 
' Oh, come on to bed ; the baby ain't in that 
cradle ! ^ 

^MVhen old Jediah Suggs, the father of the 
illustrious Simon, having discovered that young 
hopeful playing cards, undertook to impress the 
boy with the idea that gambling is a waste of 
time and money, the embryo Captain of the 
Tallapoosa Volunteers asked, with more per- 
tinency than depth of thought : ' Well, whar 
does the money go, daddy, that everybody loses ? ' 
In spite of the inability of the elder Mr. Suggs 
to answer this inquiry, he builded wiser than he 
knew, and was in the main right in his original 
proposition. '^ 

A prominent theatrical manager tells this 
story : 

' ' Henry WagstafE is breezy, and has a dashy 
way that no one can i^esist admiring. I heard 
of a game of poker he played where he was sadly 



POKEE. 



caught on a big bluflE. He was at the table with 
Mr. John Dougherty, and several other first- 
class players. The mere fact that Wagstaff 
was in the game was sufficient to indicate that 
big stakes were now and then placed on the table. 
It was jack-pot poker, and now and then the 
pot became alarmingly large. But ^ Wag ' did 
not grow dizzy, and he bet with cavalier sang- 
froid. The fact is, the great editor's poker nerve 
is the admiration of thousands of players. His 
face does not change, no matter if he is betting 
high on a bobtail flush. Some one opened the 
jack-pot and WagstaflE and Dougherty came in, 
each drawing three cards. When it came 
' Wag's ' time to bet he coolly put up $100. The 
jack-pot contained several hundred besides, and 
no one wanted to give up at once. But the 
assured way in which the editor ]3ut up his bet 
caused all to drop out except Dougherty. 

^'^He saw the bet and raised it another hun- 
dred. Wagstaflf never hesitated but went an- 
other hundred better. All the others at the 
table began to feel sorry for Dougherty, for 
they imagined that the editor had a big winning 
hand and was drawing his opponent on. After 
three one-hundred-dollar bets had been made, 
Dougherty, to the astonishment of those present, 
called Wagstaff. The latter put his hand on 
the table and showed that he had been betting 



10 POKER. 



on a pair of deuces. Dougherty raked in some- 
thing like $1000 with a pair of sevens. Every 
one present admired the editor's bluffing nerve, 
but great praise was bestowed upon Dougherty 
for his unbounded confidence in a pair of sevens. 
No one can tell when ^ Wag ^ is bluffing or 
betting on a big hand, and that is one reason 
why he is such a great player.^' 

ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 

" As sure a card as ever won the sety 

Titus Andronicus. Act F., Scene 1st. 

^ Whatever its origin, poker is now conceded to 
be one of the most intellectual, as it is doubtless 
the most fascinating, of card games. Attack 
and defense are in it developed to an amazing 
perfection, the opportunities of seizing strategic 
advantage being Avonderful. There never was 
seen such a combination of logic and luck, of 
calculation and speculation. It has by some 
been declared the offspring of the famous and 
difficult English game of '^ Gleek,^^ which we 
know to be three hundred years old, while 
others describe it as a direct development from 
the English game of '^^Brag.^^ The derivation 
of the name from the old English ''pot and 
vair '' seems fanciful, but the striking analogy 
between the use of the poker terms ^^ seeing ^^ 
and ^^ seeing you again,^^ or ^^ raising, ^^ and the 



POKER. 11 



'' vying'' and ^^ re-vying/^ or seeing and re- seeing 
referred to by Ben Jonson in '^^ Every Man in 
His Humour '' is notable and suggestive. 

It would seem by all odds^ therefore, to have 
sprung, like so much of what is best in America, 
from '^the right little, tight little island/'' Sir 
Walter Ealeigh may have brought it over, and 
Captain John Smith may, in defiance of the 
legend, have won his life and Pocahontas^ hand 
by bluffing her old red father ! 

Baron Eothschild advised speculators: ^^Cut 
short your losses ; let your profits run/^ Poker 
is so admirable an exposition of human nature 
that it is fruitful of maxims. Play liberally with 
liberal players, and closely with close players. 

Cable says : ^' A man who can play delight- 
fully on a guitar and keep a knife in his boot 
would make an excellent poker player ; '' and it is 
just as well to remember that it is not at all nec- 
essary to talk : in making bets the simple push- 
ing of the chips registers the bet. The father 
of American poker. General Bob Schenck, said : 
^'^The main elements of success are good luck, 
good cards, plenty of cheek and good temper.'^ 
Eichard Guerndale, in his ''Poker Book,"" adds, 
and ''plenty of patience. ^^ To these it is not 
misplaced here to add this : Push your luck 
when winning ; stay out when losing, until a 
little better hand than the average comes to you. 



12 



POKER. 



THE GAME. 

" Tet Iham faced it with a card of ten.'''' 

Taming of the Shrew. Act II., Scene Ist. 

Poker is played with a pack of fifty-two cards 
and by any number of persons from two to seven, 
five being considered the most proper and agree- 
able. Each plays against all the others, and 
every card counts for its exact face value as in 
whist. 

The five main operations of the game of poker 
are anteing, dealing, coming in or passing out, 
discarding, and drawing and betting. 



First Bettor 




A Dealer. 

The routine of the game may be readily gath- 
ered by a neophyte from the accompanying dia- 
gram, showing a table with positions for five 
players. A, B, C, D, and E. 

Any one of the party may first shuffle the 



POKER. 13 



cards^ which he then proceeds to throw around^ 
face up, one to each of the others and to him- 
self. The first jack is the signal for deal, as a 
matter of convenience. The person before whom 
it falls gathers up all the cards. 

Before dealing, this player, who for diagram 
uses maj be designated A, must shuffle the cards 
in the sight of every one at the table. Any 
player may now demand to shuffle the pack, the 
dealer. A, shuffling last, as a matter of course. 

The cards must now be cut. It is by no means 
essential that they be shuffled by any one but A. 
But cut they ought invariably to be, and the 
player upon whom this duty falls is always in E's 
seat, at the dealers right. 

The portion cut from the top must be placed 
at the bottom of the pack, and the dealer must 
hoM the entire pack in his hands. The portion 
cut from the top must not be allowed to lie on 
the table while the cards are being dealt. 

Dealing one card at a time, face down and to 
the left, A now proceeds to give to each player 
at the table five cards. Should a faced card ap^ 
pear in dealing, a new deal is required and the 
pack must be re-shuffled and re-cut as at first. 
The reason is evident : every player has a right 
to his chance of drawing any card in the pack. 
The sight of any card before the draw may alter 
the draw he would otherwise make. 



14 POKER. 



THE STAKES. 

'' They ham tied me to a staked 

Macbeth, Act F., Scene 7th. 

The stakes are chips, or counters. As they 
are used, presumably, only for that particular 
game, or sitting, they should be redeemed by the 
banker, at its close, for cash. Any player may 
be banker, as agreed upon. An outsider, who 
sits at the table but holds no hand, may by agree- 
ment act in that capacity. Each player pur- 
chases from the banker as many chips as he 
desires. These purchases ought to be for cash. 
If the banker chooses to accept the purchaser's 
I. 0. U. in return for the chips, it is to be pre- 
sumed the I. 0. U. will be redeemed for cash or 
chips at the close of the sitting. To any other 
player winning the chips of the player who gave 
the I. 0. U. the banker must pay cash when 
^''cashing-in^^ time comes. The I. 0. U. must 
under no circumstances be allowed to get into 
circulation about the board. The amount of 
money received by the banker in retui'n for chips 
should be carefully put aside for the redemption 
of the chips at the close of the game. 

When it is agreed mutually to play for what 
are known as ''table stakes, ^^ each player puts 
on the table the amount he is prepared to lose. 



POKER. 15 



The smallest such amount is then the limit of 
the betting. Sometimes a knife or similar object 
is put, instead of cash, into the pot, with the 
remark, ^^That makes my stake as big as any- 
body's/^ But such irregularities are only per- 
missible among intimates and are no part of the 
game. As to borrowing, it is the rule that if 
you borrow to raise, you must borrow to call. 
That is, if a player who is out of chips and cash 
succeeds in borrowing from the banker (no other 
borrowing should be permitted) enough to raise 
a pot on, he should not be permitted to cry pov- 
erty as an excuse for not calling when he in turn 
has been raised. 

THE ANTE. 

^^ If thou ham power to raise him.^^ 

Henry IV- , Part I. Act III, Scene 1st. 

The stake put up before play is begun by the 
player next the dealer, on the left, is called 
the ^^ blind. '^ All the players who come in 
must put in the pot double the amount of the 
^^ blind '^ before cards can be drawn or bets made. 
The blind cannot exceed one half the limit, 
and should not be more than one tenth of the 
limit, in order to make the game generally satis- 
factory. 

The player whose duty it is to put up the blind 



16 POKER. 



is said to hold the age, and is, from his position, 
entitled to the last bet. 

The ante should be made small, as it is in 
no way a measure of the betting. The fact that 
a player has ^^ anted ^^ should not influence him 
to come in ; he should not ^^make good^^ unless 
he would under other circumstances have drawn 
cards. The old style of poker required the 
dealer to put up a fixed sum to be played for be- 
fore he dealt. 

While the ante may be put in the pot at any 
time before the player holding the age looks 
at his hand, it is proper for it to be made 
before the dealing is begun. As it is in a way 
the measure of betting, the ante as well as the 
limit should be definitely and unanimously de- 
cided before the deal begins. 

It may not infrequently happen that a j)layer 
who has had a run of luck desires to raise the 
limit and increase the ante. This procedure is 
much to be deprecated, as it is apt to be a sacri- 
fice of the comfort of all for the caprice of one. 
Of course in that method of playing known as 
^^ table stakes, ^^ wherein any one player, on de- 
positing in full view on the table the sum total 
of what he is willing to risk, has a right to '' see '^ 
any hand for that sum, a raise of the ante or 
limit beyond the amount so deposited is impos- 
sible. And in the game of "^ freeze-out/^ a va- 



POKER. 17 



riety of poker^ any player losing the amount so 
deposited on the table is forbidden to come again 
into the game^ the remaining players continu- 
ing the game until all the chips are in one 
player^s possession. 

While the ante and the limit are, as before 
said, generally arranged at a fixed value, an un- 
limited game is sometimes played. This, how- 
ever, is gambling pure and simple, and at once 
places the player with a small capital at the 
mercy of his richer rivals. As this little treatise 
has been prepared for the use of those in search 
of harmless amusement, using stakes solely as a 
controlling influence to keep the play within 
bounds and hold the interest of the players to 
its spirit, I would suggest that the limit be 
never more than the equivalent of ten times the 
ante. 

Having anted, B, the second player — that is, 
the one on the dealer^s left — affords the third, 
C, the opportunity of ^' raising before the draw,^"* 
or of ^^ straddling ^^ or doubling the ante (double 
the ante is of course four times the amount of 
the blind). In case of """^ raising before the 
draw,''^ any player on the left of the age is 
allowed to raise the stake then being played 
for — by putting that much additional into the 
pot, to the limit, or to any less amount he 
chooses. 



18 POKER. 



As such a raise has an inevitable tendency to 
keep other players from drawing cards^ at such 
an additional expense^ it is not wise to resort to 
it except in extreme cases^ where the player so 
raising has a good hand, which he believes the 
others are specially willing to '^ buck '^ against 
for bluffing purposes. 

As the third player, C, must in any event 
bet first unless he passes, it would seem that he 
ought to be very particular in straddling. Ordi- 
narily he should not come in, that is, offer to 
bet, with less than a pair of tens in his hand. 
He must therefore consider, when he proposes 
straddling, that the chances are that he has not 
enough in his hand to Avarrant coming in. A 
straddle under the circumstances — as he cannot 
see his cards until after the straddle — implies 
confidence that he has that much or more, or 
amounts to a bluff pure and simple. Generally 
speaking, good players do not straddle. For 
straddling does not in reality alter the chances 
of winning : it simply gives the straddler the 
opportunity of observing what the other players 
draw, with a view of forming the poker-player^s 
legitimate inferences as to the value of their 
hands to begin with. 

If the player next the age, on the left, does 
not straddle, no one else can, and he must use 



POKER. 19 



his privilege before the completion of the deal. 
No one^ of course, should look at his cards be-N 
fore the deal is completed all around. 

Should the third player, who sits next the age, 
straddle the ^'^blind/^ as the ante is now called, 
the players next him may in turn straddle his 
^^blind,^^ or raise, so long as the '^^ blind ^^ is not 
in this way made more than half the limit of 
the betting. 

Some players, in case of a "^^ straddle, ^^ allow 
the player making the ^^ straddle ^^ the privilege 
of drawing cards last. But this is not right, 
and should not be permitted. 

When in the pot, the right of the age to bet 
last and the right of the dealer to draw cards 
last should never, under any circumstances, be 
interfered with. 



THE HANDS. 



The very age and body of the timey 

^ Hamlet. Act III., Scene M. 



Each hmid must ahvays contain five cards. 
The hands at poker may be numbered as follows : 

1. It contains no pair, straight, or sequence, 
and is not worth drawing to for any reason; 
sometimes called a ^^ kilter. ^^ 



20 POKER. 



2. It contains an ace and may be worth draw- 
ing to for that reason. 

3. It contains a '^'^ bobtail^' flush or straight, 
i. e., four cards of the same suit or a four se- 
quence of different suits. 

-> 4. It contains one pair. 

5. It contains two pairs. 

6. It contains three of a kind. 

7. It contains a straight. 

8. It contains a flush. 

9. It contains a full. 

10. It contains fours. 

11. It contains a straight flush. 



PLAYING A HAND PAT. 

''''Now might I do it, pat.^^ 

Hamlet. Act III.^ Scene 3d, 

To play a hand pat the limit should be bet 
both before and after the draw, and the game 
will seldom be found to be worth the candle. 
The only hand to stand pat on, other than a 
genuine one, is a hand without a pair and noth- 
ing to draw to. 

In the Southern States, I have heard, many 
players consider it almost a point of honor to 
stand pat on a hand called a ^^ kilter ^^ — that is, a 
hand with a nine for the highest and a two for 
the lowest card, and no chance of making a 



POKER. 21 

sequence. It is impossible to make anything of 
such a hand by drawing, and the only thing to be 
done is to discard the whole or play pat. This 
hand is No. 1 in the subdivision I have at- 
tempted to make to simplify matters. 

We will now suppose A, B, C, D, and E have 
discarded and drawn, and so completed their 
hands. Before proceeding to the serious business 
of betting or bluffing, let us glance at hands in 
general, so as to form an idea of what A, B, 
C, D, and E may be expected to have. 

Sequences, flushes, and fulls are the complete, 
we might say perfect, hands. All the others 
could be better. 

In the enumeration of eleven poker hands 
which I venture to make, I make no mention of 
^^ skips, ^^ ^'^ round the corners,"^ ^^ tigers, ^^ and 
^^blazes.^^ They have no place m the regular 
game, and should ie taiooed. 

To the novice I would say by way of explana- 
tion that a '' blaze, ^^ when played, consists of five 
face or picture cards and beats two pairs. A 
^^skip^^ is a species of straight, in which the 
cards do not run consecutively, but with the in- 
terval of one between each, thus : Two, four, 
six, eight, and ten, or five, seven, nine, jack, 
and king. This hand, when played, beats two 
pairs. 

A ^^ round-the- corner ^^ straight is king, ace, 



22 POKER. 



two^ three, and four, or jack, queen, king, ace, 
and two. When played, the hand ranks as a 
straight, but any straight will beat it. 

The " tiger '' consists of the lowest possible com- 
bination of five cards : two, three, four, five, and 
seven. Its place is between a straight and a 
flush. 

The value of any hand is only relative, since 
its apparent value is destroyed by the delightful 
element of uncertainty as to the actual value of 
any other player^s hand. It has been said, how- 
ever, that if you go in on a pair of face cards 
only, in the long run you will come out better 
than those players who go in on smaller pairs. 
This would be too cautious a game, however, to 
be popular at a social table. 




HAND NO. I. 

This, the lowest of all hands, contains in the 
example given a ten-spot of clubs, nine-spot of 
hearts^ four-spot of spades, five-spot of diamonds, 



POKER. 23 

and six-spot of clubs. Iso player should draw 
to it, and it is useless except to discard in toto 
for five new cards^ or to stand pat on for a bluff. 




HAND NO. 2. 

This hand contains no pairs^ no straight se- 
quence or flush. In the example given it con- 
tains an ace and a face card. It was about a hand 
like this that the story of Henry Clay^s famous 
game with Daniel Webster is told. 

It was Webster's deal. Clay took one card 
and Webster stood pat. They went on betting 
until they had each $2000 on the boards when 
Clay called. Webster laughed^ shrugged his 
shoulders, and threw his hand on the pot, saying, 
'^ Tve only a pair of deuces. ^^ ^' Then the pot is 
yours/^ Clay said, also laughing, ^^ I have only 
ace high.''' Each felt sure that the other was 
bluffing, and both were right. But it was con- 
trary to the probabilities, even when only two 
were playing, as well as to good play in general. 



24 POKER. 



for Clay to call on ace high, however proper it 
may have seemed to him to raise on that hand. 

It is often proper to discard four cards tr-oia 
this hand and draw to the ace. The draw to 
the ace and king is folly. 




HAND NO. 3. 

The ^'^ bobtail/^ or^ as I have called it^ Hand 
JSTo. 3, contains, as here illustrated^, a "^^ bobtail'^ 
or ^^ four flush '' of hearts. The hand is the 
samC;, of course, in any suit. It is nearly, if not 
quite, always advisable to draw one card to this 
hand. When holding the age a good player 
always draws one to a bobtail. The value of 
bobtail straights and flushes increases directly 
with the number of players at the table. 

HAND NO. 4. 

The ^^ one-pair ^^ hand, which I have called 
Hand No. 4, is shown here with a pair of tens. 



POKER. 25 



those of clubs and hearts, the four of spades, 
five of hearts, and six of hearts. 




A pair, of course, consists of two cards of the 
same denomination, and the hand must contain 
three other cards. If two players each hold a 
pair, the highest pair wins. If the two pairs are 
similar, the highest remaining card wins. The 
usual discard is, naturally, three cards. 




HAND NO. 5. 

This hand contains two pairs and one odd card. 
The value of the hand is determined by the high- 



26 POKER. 



est iDair. Thus, a pair of kings and a pair of 
fives beat a pair of queens and a pair of tens. 
In case the two hands are similar^ the one con- 
taining the highest odd card wins. The nsual 
discard is one card. (See "^^ Draws. ''^) 

In the example given there are a pair of jacks, 
diamonds and spades^ and a pair of threes, of 
clubs and hearts ; the odd card being the nine 
of hearts. 




HAND NO. 6. 

Hand No. 6, called '^'^ threes ^^ as a rule, con- 
sists of three cards of the same denomination 
and of course of different suits, accompanied by 
two odd cards of different denominations and of 
the same or different suits. 

In the illustration there are three tens, of 
spades, clubs, and hearts, a king of diamonds, 
and an ace of spades. 

The ordinary discard is two cards. But of 
this more later under the head of ^^ Draws. ''^ 



POKER. 



27 



HAND NO. 7. 

A straight, which we call Hand No. 7, is a 
sequence of five cards, not all of the same suit. 
Thus, a five, six, seven, eight, and nine of any 
color or suit make a straight. An ace in this 
hand may be either the lowest or the highest card, 




but cannot occupy an intermediate position ; as, 
for example, queen, king, ace, two, and three do 
not constitute a straight proper, but are by some 
considered to be a hand by themselves, called a 
^^ round the corner, ^^ which, however, is to be 
deprecated. 

The value of a straight is to be determined by 
the top card. The highest straight wins. A 
straight will beat triplets. Straights are not 
always played, but should be allowed ; though 
this of course should be settled before the begin- 
ning of the game, as, indeed, should all points 
likely to be mooted. 



58 POKER. 

The illustration shows a straight of spades and 
hearts. The hand would still be the same what- 
ever suit the cards were. 




HAND NO. 8. 

The flush contains five cards of the same suit, 
not in sequence, as five hearts, or five clubs, of 
any denomination. The flush containing the 
highest card wins. If the highest cards tie, 
then the next highest card in either hand decides 
which wins. A flush will beat a straight, and 
two equal flushes divide a pot, of course. In 
counting for supremacy the ace is high in a flush 
or straight. 

The flush shown here consists of five clubs. 

The flush of course, as does the straight, re- 
quires its holder to stand pat. While this great- 
ly impairs the efficiency of the hand, it proves 
tremendously valuable at times. The straight 
flush, consisting of five cards, consecutive and 



POKER. 29 



of the same suit^ is the highest hand at poker, 
if straights are allowed in the game. If not, it 
counts, like any other flushy simply from the 
highest card. 




HAND NO. 9. 

The full hand consists of three cards of the 
same denomination and a pair^ as three kings 
and a pair of eights. If more than one player 
holds a full, the highest threes win, irrespective 
of the other pair. A full will beat a flush. 

The full shown here consists of three jacks 
of the club, heart, and diamond suits, and a pair 
of sevens of the diamond and heart suits. 

HAND NO. 10. 

Fours, here called Hand No. 10, consists of 
four cards of the same denomination, accom- 
panied by one other card. The highest four 



30 



POKER. 




^vins. When straights are not played, fours beat 
'a straight flush^ being of course higher in value 
\than any flush. 




HAND NO. II. 

The straight flush is the highest hand that can 
be held. It is a straight in which all the cards 
are of the sajiie suit. The value is determined 
in the same way as a straight, the highest card 
winning. When straights are not played the 
straight flush does not rank higher than a com- 
mon flush. 



POKER. 31 



It is possible for two straight flushes to be 
equals and in that case the pot is divided. 

The straight flush here shown is of diamonds, 
beginning with the king. 

THE DRAW. 

'■^ I dare draw as soon as another many 

Borneo and Juliet. Act II., Scene kth. 

There is a slangy saying that the game of 
poker is '"'all in the draw.^"* While this is an 
exaggeration, it is not so very far from the truth. 
In the first place, it should be borne in mind 
that it is a duty each player owes to the game, 
his neighbors, and himself, to discard and draw 
quickly and decorously. It should be concluded 
as soon as possible after every one has come in 
or passed out. The practice of poring over the_ 
cards should be deprecated ; it often prevents 
some other player from acting on an impulse 
suggested by the first view of his own hand, and 
by delaying further procedure annoys the other 
players in general. 

As to the method of discarding, one should 
throw his discards to the center of the table, as 
nearly as possible in front of the next dealer. 
This discarding should be done quickly and 
unhesitatingly. The dealer must announce his 
draw in an audible voice ; the other players of 



32 POKER. 



course must ask for their cards so as to be heard 
by the dealer and other players as well. After 
cards have been drawn and before a bet is made, 
should a player ask the dealer how many cards 
any other player drew, the latest decision is that 
the dealer is bound to answer. 

Two cards should not be drawn to a pair un- 
less an ace or king can be retained with them, 
except for the purjDOse of a ^^ bluff /^ If most 
of the other players are ^'^in/^ the chances of 
drawing an ace or a king are not quite so good 
as those of drawing a small card, because the 
other players are more likely to be staying in on 
high than on low cards. The probabilities of 
such being the case are of course quite impossi- 
ble to determine, but they are very slight and 
are more than compensated by the chances of 
increasing the comparative value of the hand by 
making aces or kings '' up^^ instead of two small 
pairs. Thus, while it has been well said that 
the actual mathematical expectations of improv- 
ing such a hand are greater by drawing three 
cards, yet it cannot be denied that the practi- 
cal value of the hand is much enhanced by a 
successful two-card draw. The odd card should 
only be retained with a small pair — that is, on 
the merits of which the pot cannot, presumably, 
be won — say a pair of nines or under. 



POKEE. 33 



THE DRAW TO TWO PAIRS. 

". . . . and here justified 
By m, a pair of kings.'" 

Winter's Tale. Act F., Scene 3d. 

The only way of improying two pairs being 
to make a full hand, the chances are eleven and 
three fourths to one against its being made. 
When two small pairs are held and there are 
indications of fairly good hands being out, the 
smaller pair is often discarded, the chances of 
drawing a third to a pair being greater than of 
making a full hand out of two pairs. Again, if 
two pairs be held with aces or kings up, and a 
raise following a two-card draw by one or the 
other players points to threes being held by him, 
the smaller pair might be discarded in the hope 
of making high threes. No rules can be laid 
down for either of the above cases, as a question 
of judgment is involved. Many playe rs_of ex- 
perience recommend standing pat occasionally 
on two small pairs. This is not specially to be 
advised, since the only hand liable to be driven 
out is a hand which is jt(st a little better. 
Almost any player with ^^ aces up^^ or three of 
a kind will call a pat hand, particularly if the 
pot be a large one ; and to stand pat on two 
pairs against an inferior hand is to waste your 
resources. 



34 POKER, 



THE DRAW TO THREES. 

•' Hold your hands^ 
•Both you of my inclining, and the restV 

Othello. Act /., Scene 2d. 

When a player finds threes in his hand on the 
first deal, he at once recognizes the fact that it 
may be improved to either a full hand or fours. 
There is no other increase of value possible. 
Once in every twenty-three and a half times feur 
of a kind may be made by drawing two cards to 
threes. Just twice as often, or about once in 
twelve times, a full hand may be made. It is 
possible, therefore, to improve this hand by 
drawing just once in every eight times. 

A favorite play is to retain an odd card, dis- 
carding and drawing one card, and thus accom- 
plishing the valuable result of deceiving one^s 
rivals as to the strength of the hand. The 
probabilities /of improving the hand are of course 
much less, four of. a kind being possibly made 
in this way only once in forty-seven times. The 
one-card draw will result in a full hand about 
once in sixteen times. The one-card draw 
creates the impression that the hand is either 
a straight, a flush, or two pairs. It seems to be 
the opinion of good judges that as three of a 
kind is nineteen times out of twenty a good 
enough hand to win the pot, it offers the pos- 



POKEE. 35 



sessor a very wide range for the exercise of his 
own judgment in the draw. It matters not how 
the draw is made^, the hand is bound to remain 
good, and may be improved. For this reason 
the policy of masking the hand is often advisa- 
ble ; for the one-card draw especially is calculated 
to create an appearance of bluffing, indicating a 
draw to a bobtail straight or flush. 

Some excellent authorities on poker say that 
with three of a kind it is almost always best to 
hold up a card and draw one. 

THE DRAW TO A FULL. 

''"'TIS a good hand:' 

Othello. Act Ill.y Scene kth. 

While it seems a little paradoxical to talk 
about drawing cards to a hand which is dealt 
you in its complete form, such as a full, yet it 
often occurs that for reasons of the moment it is 
advisable to discard the pair and draw two cards, 
or more probably to throw away one of the asso- 
ciate pair and draw one. Where there are only 
a few playing and a full hand with aces or kings 
pat is dealt, it is better to mask the strength of 
the hand by throwing away the small pair, or 
one of them at least, retaining the three aces or 
three kings. But this, of course, is largely a 
matter for individual taste and the emergency cf 
the moment. 



3G POKER. 



DRAWING TO A BOBTAIL 

" For I am nothing.'"' 

•Othello. Act II., Scene Ist. 

The larger the number of players in a game, 
the better play it is to draw one card to a bob- 
tail flush or straight. As far as the element of 
chance goes, it must be remembered that the 
four cards are of absolutely no value without the 
odd fifth which is to be drawn, excej)t so far 
as bluffing is concerned. There is no prob- 
ability of a bobtail winning on its merits, con- 
sequently the only chance of winning is of 
improving the hand. It is hardly worth while 
to take the risk unless the pot is one of consid- 
erable size. 

Drawing to a straight with both ends open is 
very good play, as the odds are only about six to 
one against its being made. But drawing to an 
intermediate straight is taking a chance of one 
in twelve. A flush, according to the calculus of 
probabilities, should on a one-card draw be 
made nine times out of forty-seven. 

THE BETTING AND BLUFFING. 

'''- 1 rats' d him.'''' 

Conolanus. Act F., Scene 5th, 

After the discarding comes the betting. Pri- 
marily the bettor, or the player on whom the duty 



POKEK. 37 



of betting or ^'^ passing out '' first devolves^ is the 
second to the dealer's left^ 0. He bets first or 
goes out, and each player, after him, has the 
privilege of either ^^ seeing '^ what C has bet, 
raising it, or passing out. When in this way 
the turn of the age is reached, he may raise, up 
to the limit, or simply '^^see^' the highest bet 
already made, or, if C's bet is the highest, he has 
the advantage of position and may '^^call,^^ his 
^'call^' requiring a ^^ show-down'" of hands. 

That form of betting known as bluffing, which 
by some is erroneously supposed to so character- 
ize the game of draw poker as to give it, actu- 
ally, the name of ^^ bluff '' in some localities, is 
a necessary part of the game as best played. 
But it cannot be denied that many poker play- 
ers do get through an evening without once re- 
sorting to it. The fact that they pretend to 
bluff, or bluff at bluffing, has, however, the de- 
sired result, in producing an erroneous impres- 
sion on the minds of their companions at table 
— producing such impressions being indeed a sine 
qua non to success ; for the player known never 
to bluff is never ^'^ called,'^ except on some hand 
shown by experience to be probably superior to 
his. Successful bluffs are almost impossible in 
jack-pots, which see later. 

When the last bet or bluff has been made, and 
there is a ^^call,'' the hands of all those who are 



38 POKER. 



still ill the game should be shown face upward 
on the table. The highest hand takes the pot. 
Where two hands are exactly of equal value, the 
pot is divided between them. 

JACK-POTS. 

'•' Silken^ sly^ insinuating Jacks y 

Richard III. Act I., Scene Sd. 

The jack-pot is a delightful episode in a game 
of poker ; but it must be permitted to arise 
naturally, and to dawn upon the vision of the 
wearied traveler like an oasis in the desert, 
rather than be forced upon him. ^^ Passing 
the buck/^ which is simply the phrase applied to 
the circulation of a buckhorn knife, or any other 
such object, around the table, should never be 
employed as a means of artificially producing 
jack-pots, since the jack-pot is a direct and 
serious innovation on the regular routine of the 
game, making a difference not only in the deal- 
ing, but in the drawing and betting also. 

A jack-pot is a pot played for when every 
player around the table passes. 

This requires the supposition that when all 
have passed around to the ante-man, he also 
passes. Thereupon, it being his deal, he takes 
the cards and deals as usual ; but before so doing, 
every player around the board, as one of the 
solemn ceremonials attending upon jack-pots, is 



POKER. 39 



required to contribute to the pot before the deal 
the amount of the ante, or some other amount 
arbitrarily fixed upon by the ante-man, who 
exercises very considerable authority in the 
matter. 

The second distinguishing feature of the jack- 
pot is the fact that, after the ante-man has so 
dealt, and all around the table have so contrib- 
uted, the first bettor is called upon not only to 
bet but to perform that mysterious ceremony 
known as '^ opening the pot,^^ w^hich he cannot 
do unless he finds in his hand the equivalent of 
a pair of jacks or better. If he finds that he has 
not in his hand a pair of jacks or better, he 
passes, and the next player in turn examines his 
hand for the openers. If he does not find them, 
the privilege of opening the pot passes around 
the board, and if nobody can do so, the next 
player in turn deals again after every player 
present has ^"^ fattened ^^ the pot with either one 
chip or an amount agreed upon. The process of 
opening the pot must now be gone through with 
again, and if the second time no player in his 
turn discovers a pair of jacks or better, the pot 
must be again ^^ fattened, ^^ and a new deal made 
until the mystical openers are finally discovered. 

When this discovery has been made, and the 
player finding in his hand a pair of jacks or 
more says, ^^I will open the pot,^^ he is at once 



40 POKER. 



called upon to bet, no matter what his position 
at the table be, and all those who do not see his 
bet fall out, and lose their share of the pot. 

It is considered the best play to open a jack- 
pot for the limit if it is of any special value. If, 
however, the opener has an extraordinary good 
hand and wishes to induce everybody else to 
come in, he may make the open as light as he 
chooses. If, however, he finds in his hand 
openers only, it is generally considered best for 
him to open for the limit. 

The drawing and betting in jack-pots, outside 
of the opening bet, are exactly similar to those 
of the regular game of poker. 

Any player other than the opener who desires 
to come in may do so on putting up the amount 
for which the pot was opened, regardless of the 
value of his hand. 

Of course as the opener must have a pair of 
jacks or more, he must prove to the other 
players at the end of the pot that he did hold 
such a hand on the go-in. For that reason he 
must invariably show his hand at the termina- 
tion of the pot, openers and all, face up on the 
table. It is considered an excellent rule, by the 
way, to open a jack-pot whenever you can.. 

The question of discards naturally arises when 
the opener has such a hand as this : A pair of 
jacks and four hearts. Naturally it occurs to 



POKER. 41 



him^ with a big pot and a good many playing, 
that were he to discard the other jack and keep 
the four hearts, with the jack at the head, he 
may stand a good chance of drawing the fifth 
heart and getting a flush. In such cases it is 
considered allowable for him to do so, if he care- 
fully puts the discarded jack on one side, where 
it remains in full view, and announces his in- 
tention of discarding one of his openers. 



PENALTIES IN POKER. 

** Your lordship is the most patient man in loss.'^ 

Cymheline. Act II., Scene Sd. 

In a gentleman^'s game, by gentlemen and for 
gentlemen, there ought to be as little possible 
question on such matters as penalties. However, 
there are some sins against the code of poker 
so grievous that their commission should be dis- 
couraged in every possible way ; and against 
them penalties have been at times made. This, 
however, should be largely a matter for mutual 
agreement at the time. 

The penalty for opening a jack-pot without 
openers is sometimes enforced by requiring the 
offender to make an extra contribution to the 
pot. The penalty for taking up a six-card or 
other foul hand from the table is that the of- 
fender must not play in that hand. If a foul 



42 POKER. 



hand is bet^ the offender loses the pot. If a 
player miscalls his hands^ innocently, and on the 
show-down has enough to win the pot, it remains 
his. Miscalling a hand, however, knowingly, 
with the expectation that the error may escape 
detection in the show-down, is one of the grossest 
violations of fair play. Any hand which is not 
properly dealt is a foul hand. 

STRAIGHT POKER. 

Straight Poker was played before Draw Poker, 
and is the original game. It carries out the 
true spirit of the game, and is almost pure bluff. 
The essential difference between Straight Poker 
and Draw Poker is that in the former you play 
with the original cards, there being no draw. 
Each player puts up a certain amount before the 
deal, and there is no ante. 

STUD POKER. 

Stud Poker is played in negro clubs and in the 
West. The deal is of no value ; one position 
is as good' as another. Each player puts up 
a certain amount, to form a pot. The dealer 
throws down two cards to each player, the first 
face down, the second face up. The first is 
called the '' down '' card, and is seen by the recip- 
ient only. The player with the highest "^^ turn- 
up '' card can make a bet or pass and come in 



POKEK. 43 



again. If he passes^ the player next him can bet^ 
or pass ; and so on, around the table. When a 
bet is made and the other players have either seen 
or passed out, or when all have passed, another 
card is dealt around, face up, the player with the 
highest shown hand having to bet, or pass, first, 
and so on, until each player has received five 
cards, four face up and one face down. The bet- 
ting and raising are as in regular poker, the high- 
est hand winning at the call. If the game be 
played with a draw, then cards are drawn which 
are not exposed. 

WHISKY POKER. 

In Whisky Poker each player puts up a cer- 
tain amount ; this forms a pot, which is not 
increased, there being no betting. Five cards 
are dealt around, with an extra hand in the mid- 
dle of the table ; this hand is called '^ the widow.^^ 
The player next the dealer has the choice of 
retaining his hand or taking ''''the widow. ^^ If 
he retains his hand he passes, and the player 
to the left has the privilege, and so on all 
around. If ''''the widow ^^ be taken, the player 
taking it places his original hand in the mid- 
dle of the table, face up, and the other players 
in turn take one or more cards from the ex- 
posed hand, replacing them with cards from 
their own. This goes on until one player de- 



44 POKER. 



clares himself satisfied ; those after him may 
continue to exchange cards until it comes round 
to him again, when the hands are considered 
called and the highest wins. Any player may 
consider himself satisfied at any time, and so 
indicates by rapping on the table with his 
knuckles. 

The game originated in the mining-camps, no 
money or chips being used, but the lowest hand 
being obliged to pay for drinks. 



POKER SHARPS 



MARKED CARDS, "BUGS," AND OTHER DEVICES 
FOR THE UNWARY. 

'•''But whiles he thought to steal the single ten. 
The king was slily fingered from the deck, ! " 

Henry YL, Fart III. Act F., Scene 1st 

As it is just as well to be on one^s guard 
against the devices of swindlers and the mechan- 
ical contrivances of fraudulent poker players^ I 
will give the reader an idea of the ''^ bug/' marked 
cards^ and other traps for the unwary. Of the 
devices regularly manufactured and sold for the 
aid and comfort of professional poker players^ a 
conspicuous one is the ^"^ hold-out/^ which ena- 
bles the gambler to hold out from three to fifty- 
two cards^ so that he may supply his hand from 
this extra source without danger of detection. 
There are vest '^'^ hold-outs/^ coat ^'^ hold-outs/^ 
the ^"^bug^^ or table "^Hiold-out/'^ and the ring 
^^hold-out.^' 

. The ^"^ bug/^ an illustration of which is printed 
herewith^ is about as simple a contrivance as can 



46 



POKER. 



well be imagined. It is made in various styles, 
but consists usually of a small wooden nob about 
the size of a chestnut. Into this is inserted a 
piece of watch-spring four or five inches long, 
with a decided upward tendency. When the 
head of a small steel nail with a very sharp 
point has also been inserted in the nob, the " bug '^ 
is ready for business. In the illustration a man^s 




The '^Bug." 

hand is just about placing it underneath the 
table. The sharp point is stuck into the table a 
few inches from the edge, and when firmly fixed 
the watch-spring with the upward tendency 
makes connection with the flat under surface, 
and a convenient place for placing extra cards 
is thus secured. In a game of poker a few extra 
kings, queens, and aces are, of course, always 
desirable. There are also various kinds of re- 
flectors or mirrors to be used so that the dealer 



POKER. 47 



may learn what cards he is dealing to an oppo- 
nent. ^"^ A table reflector to fit any table^, very 
fine^ cannot be detected^ a valuable article for a 
dealer at stud poker/^ is highly prized. So is a 
reflector in a pipe, all complete, with pipe ready 
for use. There is also a reflector to fasten on 
a pile of greenbacks, and ^^ ^ reflector to set in 
five faro or poker chips, set in chips ready for 
use.^^ 

Nearly everybody has heard of playing cards 
with marked backs, but comparatively few have 
heard of quite as common a device among gam- 
blers known as stripping. Cards that are 
stripped are simply cut a very little narrower 
and shorter than the other cards in the pack, 
and in consequence, the cards which are not 
stripped are very easily detected by the delicate 
hand of the experienced gambler, and are put 
readily in desired positions. 

MARKED CARDS. 

** Master Sure- Card, as I think.'''* 

Henry IV. Part 11, Act III., Scene U, 

The accompanying pictures of sections of 
cards with marked backs show clearly one of the 
many ingenious devices. There are two flowers 
on the lower left-hand corner, which are varied 
to designate the suit and the size of the card. 
The lower flower has three leaves. When the 



48 



POKER. 



upper leaf is the largest of the three^ the card is 
a club ; when the center leaf is the largest, it is 



ACE OF CLUBS 



KING or CLUBS 




a diamond ; when the lower leaf is the largest, 
it is a heart ; and when all the leaves are of the 
same size, the card is a spade. 



NINE or CLUBS 



EIGHT or CLUBS 




The size of the cards is determined by the 
upper flower, first by its" design and secondly by 
the direction in which it points. If it is of a 



POKEE. 



49 



smooth clover design, it designates one of five 
cards, beginning with the ace and ending with 



ACE OF CLUBS ACE OF SPADES 




the ten-spot, accordingly as it points upwards 
at an acute angle, at right angles, at an acute 
angle downward, or straight down. If it is rather 



ace: or hearts 



ACE OF DIAMONDS 




quaint and angular in design, it designates one 
of five cards, beginning with the nine and end- 
ing with the five. These two flowers are illus- 



50 POKER. 



trated in the accompanying cuts^ showing the ace 
and king, the nine-spot and eight. 

The four-spot^ the tray^ and the deuce are 
designated by a two-leafed flower shown in 
three different directions. The flowers which 
are emphasized in the cnts and marked in black 
are^ of course^ on the back of the card itself 
lost in the general design, and can only be dis- 
tinguished by a practiced eye. 



POKER-DICE. 

*' / will stand the hazard of the die.'''' 

Richard III. Act F., Scene Uh, 

Five dice must be used in this interesting va- 
riety of the game, and the stakes determined on 
must be put into the pot by each player^ one^ 
two, three, or as many chips as may be mutually 




agreed upon. The whole amount or pot goes to 
the best thrower. Any number of players may 
engage in poker-dice, each one to have three 



52 POKER. 



throws. When the game was first invented, 
two throws only were allowed the player, but the 
three-throw game is much the more interesting. 

The entire five dice are cast at the first throw. 
Suppose the first thrower, there being no advan- 
tage in priority, throws this hand : 

Two aces, a deuce, a tray, and a four. 

Now his game would be, of course, to leave 
his aces on the table and throw the other three 
dice, since it would be absurd for him to split 
his aces. Should he at the second throw turn 
out another ace, he has now three of a kind, and 
possibly at this throw he might turn out another 
pair with his ace, making an ace full ; or he 
might throw two more aces, making four of a 
kind ; or three aces more, making five aces, the 
highest hand in poker-dice. It is possible with 
five dice to make a straight, say one, two, three, 
four, and five, thus beating three of a kind. In 
short, the values run exactly as in the card game 
of poker. When two players with one pair each 
are tied, the next highest pip counts in favor of 
the pair with which it is associated. For ex- 
ample, if a player has a pair of aces and a three, 
four, and five, and the other player has a pair of 
aces and a two, three, and a six, the six makes 
his hand the best and he takes the pot. 

On the occasion of an even tie, a single throw 
between the two decides the winner. 



POKER. 53 



A player is not bound to throw three times. 
It is his privilege to stand on any single throw^ 
whether it be the first, second, or third. A new 
and very pretty kind of poker-dice has recently 
been manufactured, showing the nine, ten, jack, 
king, queen, and ace, beautifully enameled. 
They may be procured at any of the leading 
houses where sporting goods are sold. 



- SCHENCK ON POKER. 



While General Eobert E. Schenck was the 
American Minister to England, lie won the very 
unjust title of " Poker Schenck/^ I am told that 
at one of the Queen^s receptions he fell into con- 
versation with a noted English duchess about 
cards. During this talk he described to her the 
beauties of poker in such a way that she became 
intensely interested, and begged him to write 
her out a set of rules and directions for playing 
the great American game. This Mr. Schenck 
very kindly did. The duchess learned to play 
poker, and as it wove its fascinating toils about 
her she wanted her friends to learn also. For 
convenience she had Mr. Schenck^s letter printed 
in a neat pamphlet and distributed among her 
friends of the court circles. A malicious scrib- 
bler heard of the fact, and telegraphed to the 
American newspapers that our foreign minister 
had published a book on poker playing. As 
many persons feel a natural interest in General 
Schenck^s rules, I append them herewith. 



POKER. 55 



RULES FOR PLAYING POKER. 
BY THE HON. ROBERT C. SCHENCK, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- 
tiary of tlie United States of America near 
Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain 
and Ireland, 

THE DEAL. 

The deal is of no special value, and anybody 
may begin. 

The dealer, beginning with the person at his 
left, throws aronnd five cards to each player, 
giving one card at a time. 

The dealer shuffles and makes up the pack 
himself ; or, it may be done by the player at his 
left, and the player at his right must cut. 

THE ANTE. 

To begin the pool, the player next tO the dealer 
on his left must put up money, which is called 
an ^^ante^^ ; and then in succession each play- 
er, passing around to the left, must, after look- 
ing at his hand, determine if he goes in or not ; 
and each person deciding to play for the pool 
must put in twice the amount of the ante. 
Those who decline to play throw up their cards 
face downward on the table, and, per conse- 
quence, in front of the next dealer. 



56 POKER. 



When all who wish to play have gone in^ the 
person putting up the ante can either give 
up all interest in the pool^ thus forfeiting the 
ante that has been put up^ or else can play 
like the others who have gone in, by ^^ making 
good '^ ; that is^ putting up in addition to the 
ante as much more as will make him equal in 
stake to the rest. 

If a number of players have gone in^ it is best 
generally for the ante-man to make good and go 
in, even with a poor hand, because half his stake 
is already up, and he can therefore stay in for 
half as much as the others have had to put up, 
which is a percentage in favor of his taking the 
risk. This, of course, does not apply if any one 
has ^'^ raised ^^; that is, more than doubled the 
ante before it comes around to the starting- 
point. 

RAISING. 

. Any one, at the time of going in, must put up 
as much as double the ante, and may put up as 
much more as he pleases, by way of ^*^ raising ^^ 
the ante ; in which case every other player must 
put up as much as will make his stake equal to 
such increase, or else abandon what he has 
already put in. 

Each player, as he makes good and equals the 
others who are in before him, can thus increase 
the ante if he chooses, compelling the others 



1>0KEK. 57 



still to come up to that increase^ or to abandon 
their share in the joool. 

All *^ Agoing in/^ or '^^ raising ^^ of the j)ool^ as 
well as all betting afterward, must be in regular 
order, going around by the left ; no one going in, 
making good, increasing the ante, or betting, 
except in turn. 

THE DRAW. "V 

When all are in equally who intend to play, 
each player in turn will have the privilege of 
drawing ; that is, of throwing away any number 
of his five cards and drawing as many others, to 
try thus to better his hand. The cards thus 
thrown up must be placed face downward on the 
table, and, for convenience, in front of or near 
the next dealer. 

The dealer, passing around to the left, will 
ask each player in turn how many cards he will 
have, and deal him the number asked for from 
the top of the pack, without their being seen. 
The dealer, if he has gone in to play for the 
pool, will in like manner help himself last. 

The players must throw away their discarded 
cards before taking up or looking at those they 
draw. 

In the game every player is for himself and 
against all others, and to that end will not let 
any of his cards be seen, nor betray the value of 



58 POKER. 



his hand by drawing or playing out of his turn, 
or by change of countenance or any other sign. 
It is a great object to mystify your adversa- 
ries up to the ^^call/^ when hands have to be 
shown. To this end it is permitted to chaff 
or talk nonsense, with a view of misleading 
your adversaries as to the value of your hand ; 
but this must be without unreasonably delaying 
the game. 

BETTING. 

When the drawing is all complete, the betting 
goes around in order, like the drawing, to the 
left. The ante-man is the first to bet, unless he 
has declined to play ; and in that case the first 
to bet is the player nearest the dealer, on his 
left. But the player entitled to bet first may 
withhold his bet until the others have bet around 
to him, which is called ^^ holding the age ]'' and 
this, being an advantage, should, as a general 
rule, be practiced. 

Each bettor in turn must put into the pool a 
sum equal at least to the first bet made ; but each 
may in turn increase the bet, or raise it, as it 
comes to him : in which case the bets, proceeding 
around in order, must be made by each player 
in his turn equal to the highest amount put in 
by any one ; or else, failing to do that, the 
party who fails must go out of the play, forfeit- 
ing his interest in the pool. 



POKER. 59 



When a player puts in only as much as has 
been put in by each player who has preceded 
him^ that is called '^ seeing ^^ the bet. 

When a player puts in that much^ and raises 
it, that is called seeing the bet and ^ Agoing 
better.'' 

When the bet goes around to the last bettor or 
player who remains in, if he does not wish to 
see and go better, he simply sees and ''^calls'' ; 
and then all players must show their hands, and 
Jhe highest hand wins the pool. 

When any one declines to see the bet or the 
increase of bet which has been made, he ^^lays 
down '' his hand — that is, throws it up with the 
cards face downward on the table. If all the 
other players throw down their hands, the one 
who remains in to the last wins, and takes the 
pool without showing his hand. 

To ''^blufi'' is to take the risk of betting high 
enough on a poor hand, or a worthless one, to 
make all the other players lay down their hands 
without seeing or calling you. 

When a hand is complete, so that the holder 
of it can play without drawing to better it, that 
is called a "^^paf hand. A bold player will 
sometimes decline to draw any cards, and pre- 
tend to have a pat hand, and play it as such, 
when he has none. 

A skillful player will watch and observe what 



60 POKER, 



each player draws, the expression of the face, 
the circumstances and manner of betting, and 
judge, or try to judge, of the value of each hand 
opposed to him accordingly. 

No one is bound to answer the question how 
many cards he drew, except the dealer ; and the 
dealer is not bound to tell after the betting has 
begun. 

ij/ DRAWING. 

If the player determines to draw to a pair, he 
draws three cards. If he draws to two pairs, he 
draws one card. 

If he holds three to begin with, he draws two 
cards, in order to have the best chance of mak- 
ing a full, inasmuch as, in playing, pairs are apt 
to run together ; but to deceive his adversaries, 
and make them think he has nothing better 
than two pairs, a sharp player will often draw 
but one card to his three. 

It is advisable, sometimes, to keep an ace, or 
other high card, as an ''^ outsider, ^^ with a small 
pair, and draw two cards, — thus taking the 
chances of matching the high card, and so get- 
ting a good two pairs, or something better pos- 
sibly, while at the same time others may be 
deceived into believing that the player is drawing 
to threes. 

When drawing to cards of the same suit to 
try to make a flush, or to cards of successive 



POKER. 63 

That fall counts highest of which the three 
cards of the same denomination are highest. 
The two cards of the same denomination help 
only to constitute the full, but do not add to the 
value of the hand. 

When hands are equal so far that each party 
holds a pair or two pairs of exactly the same 
value, then the next highest card or cards in 
each hand must be compared with the next high- 
est card or cards in the other hand to determine 
which wins. 

In case of the highest hands (which very sel- 
dom occurs) being exactly equal, the pool is di- 
vided. 

The main elements of success in the game are : 
(1) good Inch ; (2) good cards ; (3) plenty of 
cheeh ; and (4) good temper. 



LAWS OF POKER. 



''It is the law:' 

Measure for Measure. Act III., Scene M. 

' TTiough the above rules are good, they re- 
quire amplification, and to meet a neiv generation 
of players the folloiving laivs, which are the lat- 
est, I noio summarize as follows : 

DEALING. 

1. One card is thrown face up to each player. 
The lowest card deals. The ace is the lowest. 
The king is the highest. 



64 POKER. 



2. Cards are shuffled in sight. Every player 
has a right to shuffle. The dealer shuffles last. 

3. The player to the right of the dealer cuts. 

4. One card at a time is given to each player, 
beginning at the left. 

5. The deal goes to the left. 

6. A pack with a faced card, when dealt, re- 
quires a new deal by the same dealer. Cards 
are re-shuffled and cut as before. 

7. When a card is faced in dealing, this turn- 
ing of the card being due to the dealer, or any 
other player, whether by accident or not, the 
player must receive the card. 

8. If two cards are exposed in the same way, 
as described in Eule 7, there must be a new deal. 

9. If a player raises his hand and discovers he 
has the wrong number of cards, it is not a mis- 
deal. He must discover it before raising the 
hand from the table or forfeit his hand. 

10. No play can be made without the exact 
number of cards, which is five. 

DISCARDING^ 

11. After the first five cards are dealt, players 
who remain in may discard up to five cards, and 
ask for as many new cards as they require. The 
discard begins at the age — the player at the left 
of the dealer. Every player must discard in 
his regular turn. The exact number of cards 



POKER. 65 



asked for is given. Once cards are thrown away— i^ 
they cannot be handled until the next deal. 

12. Players cannot ask others what is the dis- 
card as to numbers^ either before or after the 
draw. (Formerly the rule read that before the 
draw the question could be asked^ but not after 
it.) The dealer must announce his own discard. 

13. When more cards are offered by the dealer 
than are asked for by the discard, the player, on 
announcing that too many or not enough cards 
are dealt him, can decline taking them, and the 
dealer may correct the error. If, however, the 
player accepts the cards from the dealer, and 
looks at them, whether they be more or less than 
the regular number he should have, which is 
five, the player is ruled out of the game. 

14. If, in asking for cards in the draw, one 
card is turned or shown, the latest-accepted rule 
is that this card cannot be taken. The dealer 
takes the exposed card, puts it at the bottom of 
the pack, proceeds to give the cards in order to 
the next players, and when through then gives 
a card to the player whose card has been turned. 
If more than one card be turned in the draw, 
the rule is the same. (This rule, though often 
disputed, should be accepted.) 

THE ANTE. 

15. The player after the dealer must ante first, 
before the deal. He puts up any number of 



66 POKER. 



chips^ not exceeding half the limit. To come in 
he has to double the ante^ as the other players 
have to. The ante can never be more, when 
first put up, than half the limit. 

16. When the cards are dealt, players who 
come in must double the ante. 

17. The age comes in last, and makes his ante 
good or not, at his option. 

RAISES. 

18. After the age any player, in his turn, 
may raise. Any number of raises in turn are 
in order. 

19. After the draw, any player who is in, 
commencing with the one to the left of the age, 
can raise. 

20. The eldest hand, the age, comes in last. 
If the age declines making his blind good, not- 
withstanding this, the first player after him must 
bet first. The age never passes. 

21. If a bet be raised by a player who is in his 
regular turn, the next player must see the bet 
or retire. 

SHOWING HAND§, 

22. A show of hands, putting them on the 
table, face up, is a rule never to be departed 
from when the call is made. 

CALLING. 

23. . When a player bets more than any one 



POKER. 67 



else^ within the limits and no one calls or sees 
him, he Avins. 

ONCE OUT. 

24. Once out of the game, a player can never 
enter again. [No fotd hand can win under any 
circumstances, except in a successful iluff.) 

THE BLIND AND STRADDLE 

25. The age alone can make the blind. The 
next to the age can straddle. But the third 
player after the age cannot begin to straddle. 
The third player can straddle the straddler, 
always within the limit. 

26. The straddle cannot make the straddle and 
raise at the same time. (There is no rule less ob- 
served than the one that the age never passes. 
This rale, No. 20, should be faithfully observed.) 

RULES FOR THE JACKPOT, 

27. Each player puts up as many chips as the 
one having the age. 

28. The opening hand must have a pair of 
jacks or better. 

29. If no player can come in, another chip is 
added by each player, and a second round begins. 

30. After the opener, to the left of him all the 
players can come in, providing they see the 
amount he bets. 

31. The opening bet must be put up before 
the draw. 



68 POKER. 



32. The opener makes the first bet. 

33. The last person to bet is the player, who 
is to the right of the opener. 

34. All raises, as in poker, are in regular 
order. 

35. For an error in opening a jack-pot, the 
person having made the mistake retires from the 
game. The penalty for the mistake is for him 
to put up a jack-pot equal in chips to the one 
he has entered into in error. 

.;36. In the case of an error of this kind, any 
other player, to the left of the putative opener, 
having a pair of jacks or better can open. 

37. If the error is found out after the cards 
have been drawn, and no hand has a pair of 
openers, that round of jack-pots is null and void. 

38. A jack-pot cannot be opened by a player 
drawing for a straight or a flush. Any other 
player but the opener can draw for what he 
pleases. (See the explanations for this appar- 
ently arbitrary rule.) 

(The laws governing the playing of the jack- 
pot require remodeling. This peculiar phase of 
poker is not old enough to have crystallized into 
its concrete form. As it is universally played, 
stringent rules should be adopted for it. Such 
rules as are presented are in accordance with those 
employed in New York City. The right to 
play the jack-pot at all is disputed by many 



POKEE. 69 



players. The argument against it is that it is a 
diabolical invention of kitty. It is true that 
the more frequent are jack-pots, the larger the 
earnings of the kitty. ) 

All the rules of poher are made to prevent 
fraud. Every rule should he strictly adhered to. 



VALUE OF THE HANDS AT POKER. 

" Our hands are full."'' 

Henry ly.. Part I. Act III., Scene 2d, 

Singly each card possesses its ordinary value, 
as in whist. 

NO PAIRS. 

The lowest hand is one in which, in the five 
cards, there are no pairs, nor are the cards of the 
same suifc, nor is there a sequence. Its value 
would depend on its highest card. Thus, one 
hand may contain a two of spades, a four of 
hearts, an eight of diamonds, a jack of clubs, 
and an ace of diamonds. This hand would be 
better than one which held only a king of dia- 
monds as its highest card. It is not uncom- 
mon, even when betting is made on a false 
straight, that when one adversary calls the other 
no pair can be shown. Then the highest card 
wins. (See farther on in regard to straights and 
flushes.) 



70 POKER. 



ONE PAIR. 

The values of the cards being the same as in 
whist, a pair of threes, as the three of diamonds 
and three of spades, is better than the deuce of 
diamonds or the deuce of spades, as a pair of 
aces are better than a pair of kings or a pair 
of queens better than a pair of jacks. If each 
player, when two are engaged, has pairs which 
are alike, as, say, each one has a pair of queens, 
the next highest card wins. Say the two 
players had each queens. In one hand is a 
king, in the other a jack. The hand with the 
queens and king would win. Occasionally this 
parity of hands may require the second or even 
the third card after the pair to decide on the 
value of the hand. One of the rarest things is 
to see the same cards held exactly by two hands. 
This may occur, but never when threes, fulls, 
or fours are held. (Threes and fulls will be 
explained later.) 

TWO PAIRS. 

Two pairs beat a single pair. Of the two 
pairs the higher wins when pitted against any 
other two pairs. A pair of aces and a pair 
of deuces are better than a pair of kings and 
a pair of queens. A pair of sixes and threes 
are better than a pair of fives and fours. If 



POKER. 71 



the two pairs are alike^ then the single card 
left decides the value of the hand. 

THREES OR TRIPLETS. 

By threes or triplets is meant that the player 
holds three cards of the same value, as three 
aces, or three tens, or three deuces. The three 
highest win. There can be no similarity of 
hands in threes. 

THE STRAIGHT. 

The straight, sometimes called a sequence, 
means that five cards are held which ascend in 
exact valueSi Thus, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, 7, 8, 
9, 10, are numerical sequences. The straight 
has no reference to color. A straight may be 
composed of the five of hearts, six of diamonds, 
seven of clubs, eight of spades, and nine of 
hearts. The ace, king, queen, jack, ten, irre- 
spective of suits, is a straight. The ace, how- 
ever, in a straight may change in value, for it 
may be taken as the beginning of the straight ; 
thus, an ace, a deuce, three, four, and five is 
a straight, but it is the lowest one ; it would 
be beaten by a two, three, four, five, and six. 
As in all valuations, the best or highest straight 
or sequence wins. A straight beginning with 
a nine and ending with a king is not as good 
as one commencing with a ten and ending 
with an ace. Two hands may hold straights 



72 POKEB. 



of the same value ; and when this happenft 
the pool is divided between the two players 
holding the straights. 

FLUSH. 

When five cards of the same suit are held, 
this is a flush. Any five spades, or five clubs, 
diamonds, or hearts, is a flush. The hand hold- 
ing the highest card in the flush wins. A two, 
three, four, five, headed by an ace of the same 
suit, is better than an eight, ten, jack, queen, 
and king of the same suit. In the fiush two 
hands may be made of exactly the same value ; 
in this case the pool is divided, 

THE FULL. 

By the full is understood a hand which con- 
tains not only threes, but a pair. Thus, a full 
hand may be composed of three threes and two 
deuces, or three aces and two kings. Just like 
in two pairs, the higher threes decide in the 
value of the hand. Three fours and two twos 
are better than three threes and two aces. Two 
similar hands in a full do not exist. 

FOURS. 

This is a rare hand to hold, and means that 
in the five cards, four cards are of the same 
value. Thus four .deuces is a four, as are four 



POKER. 73 



aces. The highest fours win. There can be no 
similar hands in fours. 

THE STRAIGHT FLUSH. 

This is the most unusual of all hands to hold^ 
and is the highest in value. By a straight flush 
is meant that the five cards are not alone of the 
same suit^ but have a regular numerical progres- 
sion. It is not only a straight^ but also a flush. 
Thus, a two^ three, four, five^ six of spades is a 
straight flush^ as is a ten, jack, queen, king, and 
ace of clubs or any other suit. Many games of 
poker may be played and a straight flush never 
seen. Two straight flushes of the same value 
may be made at the same time. It is within 
the possibility of cards, but players have rarely, 
if ever^ seen this double event. 

RECAPITULATION. 

The values of the hands at poker are in the 
following order : 

1. No pairs. (Highest card wins.) 

2. One pair. 
.3. Two pairs. 

4. Threes or triplets. 

5. The straight or sequence. 

6. The flush. 
7. -The full. 

8. FourSo 

9. The straight flush. 



74 POKEK. 



HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED. 

'' But is this law?''' 

Hamlet. Act F., Scene 1st. 

Poker is played with a full pack of 52 cards. 

The number of players should be limited to 
six. Five is the best number^ but seven can 
play ; but when seven play^ as each player re- 
ceives five cards thirty-five cards have been dealt, 
and this only leaves seventeen cards. As every 
player has five cards dealt to him and has a right 
to draw five cards^ there are not sufficient cards 
for this ; and when seven play recourse must be 
had to the discard. JSfoiv, as every rule in jpoTcer 
is devised as a protection agaiiist fraud, seven 
players should not ie permitted. 

For the deal^ as in whist^ one card is thrown 
to each person^ face up^ and the lowest deals. 
There is some slight advantage in dealing. The 
cards are shuffled^ and cut by the person to the 
left of the dealer. The dealer gives in rotation 
one card singly to each player, dealing the cards 
to the left. The deal goes to the left. Each 
player receives five cards. 

Before the deal commences, the player to the 
left of the dealer puts his stake on the table. 
This player to the left is called the age, and the 
stake he puts up is called the blind. It is an in- 
vitation, as it were, to the others to make their 



POKER. 75 

A 

bets. This player who has the age has certain 
advantages or disadvantages^ which will be after- 
ward explained. As the deal always goes to the 
left^ the deal passing after every round of the 
game^ the position of the age is always changing 
in regular order. 




A Dealer. 

The circle represents the table^ and A, B^ 0, 
D^ E^ the players. When A deals, B is the age, 
and must ante. As the deal goes to the left, 
after every round, B would be the next dealer and 
C the age. When E is dealer, A is the age. 

Before the dealer gives any cards, or the game 
is commenced, a limit is agreed upon. The ne- 
cessity of a limit must be at once insisted upon, 
because no game of poker is possible without it. 
It acts as a curb, and prevents losses. To play 
without a limit would be the same as to wager 
$1000 in a game of whist or euchre. It may be 



76 POKER. 



then supposed that the players A, B^ C, D^ and 
E have agreed that ten cents be the limit. 
When A deals^ B may put on the table one chip, 
the chip representing one cent, and he does this 
before receiving any cards. He may put up 
two, three, four, or five chips, but when he 
reaches five chips he is at the limit of the game, 
because should he or any of the other players 
come in, he or they would have to double the 
blind, which if he put up five would be ten, and 
ten is the limit of the game. If he put up one 
he would have to double it if he came in. ^No 
bet then can be made of any kind higher than 
ten chips, if ten be the limit. But the ten chips 
or ten cents can be accepted as the wager and 
ten chips more bet, and this ten repeated over 
and over again, but eleven chips cannot be bet. 
The limit is ten. The person who is the age 
has the advantage of playing or betting last. If 
he has good cards he may be willing to come in. 
He has one chip on the table, which he will lose 
if any one else comes in, and he is unwilling to 
put up another chip. If he has a bad hand he 
abandons his one chip. This is to his disadvan- 
tage. The advantage of the position is that if he 
has a good hand, being the last player, he can aug- 
ment the stake. An augmentation of the stake 
by the age will be afterward explained. 

It is C who makes the first wager, or C may 



POKEK. 



77 



have nothing. Then D may come in^ or E^ or 
the dealer^ A. It is never obligatory to play in 
poker ; you may make a wager or not as you 
please^ with the exception of the age^ who must 
risk a chip. 

Two aces. 



Two pairs, 
fives and sixes. 




A Dealer. 
Nothing. 

With the diagram and the players an imag- 
inary game can now be carried on. 

A deals^ B puts up one chip for a blind, the! 
limit of betting is ten, and the cards are dealt 
five to each person. The cards are looked at. 
C is the first to bet. Say he has a pair of aces 
in his hand ; D two pairs, a pair of fives and a 
pair of sixes ; E has three twos ; A, the dealer, 
no pairs at all, a valueless hand ; and B, who 
comes in last, four hearts. C, D, E have all of 
them cards of some value ; B has, so far, cards 
which are worthless, but if he could get an- 



78 POKER. 



other heart he would have an excellent hand, 
and make a flush. C, D, E come in, as does B. 
They each have put up two chips, and B, who 
was the age, makes his stake good by putting up 
another chip. A, the dealer, who holds noth- 
ing, does not enter at all. Now the cards are 
drawn, just as in ecarte. The players ask for 
cards, and can take up to five cards — that is, as 
many cards as they want. B, who is after the 
dealer, is helped first. He asks for one card.. 
He has four hearts, and wants to get another 
heart. C, who has two aces, asks for three cards. 
He may make two pairs, taking in another pair, 
or he might draw another ace, which would 
make him three aces, or he might draw three 
cards all of the same value, a triplet, making 
him a full, or he might take in two more aces, 
making him have four of a kind. D, who has 
two pairs, fives and sixes, might also, by taking 
one card, get another five or six, and so have a full. 
E, who has three twos, might draw two cards, 
helping, just like C, to make four or a full. 
A, who dealt, has nothing, and does not ask for 
new cards, for, once having passed, he is out of 
the game for the round. 

B, who was the age, has four hearts. It might 
be that he held the two, three, four, and five of 
hearts. Should he draw the six of hearts he 
would have a straight flush, which would be 



POKEK. 79 



almost invincible. If his hand consisted of the 
ace, king, queen, jack, and he were to draw the 
ten, there would be no possibility of his losing. 
If he drew any heart, he would make a single 
flush, which is a strong hand. The cards are 
then dealt, the dealer giving to each one exactly 
the number of cards he asks for. 

B, one card, drawn to a flush. 

C, three cards, drawn to a pair. 

D, one card, drawn to two pairs. 

E, two cards, drawn to threes. 

The discarded cards are thrown toward the 
dealer before the new cards are given. Now 
the question arises : Whose hand has been im- 
proved ? Nobody can tell. C's two aces is a 
fair hand ; but of all of them before the draw 
E's was the best hand, he had three deuces. 
The player may gain some information as to the 
character of the hands from the number of cards 
drawn. If a player had drawn five new cards, 
or four new cards, the certainty would be that 
he held in neither case a pair, but was trusting 
to luck to draw something. E has taken two 
cards. That looks as if he had threes. D and 
B have both taken one card. Either of them 
may hold threes. This might not be likely, 
or they would have shown perhaps by an early 
bet that they held good hands. But nothing 



i^ 



80 POKER. 



absolutely certain can be gleaned from the draw, 
for B, who has nothing, may be drawing for a 
card to make a straight, or a flush, or he may 
have two pairs. 

Let the giving of the new cards in this case, 
B, C, D, and E, have their hands precisely in 
the same condition as before the draw. has 
his pair of aces ; D his two pairs ; E his three 
twos ; B has drawn a spade, and his hand is 
good for nothing — just as it was when he came 
in. Now the betting commences. C wagers 
one chip; D '^'^sees it,^^ or puts up one chip; 
he has two pairs ; E, who has three twos, wagers 
the one chip of C and D, and '^^ raises ^^ them 
ten chips. B is frightened. It is his turn next, 
and he goes out, relinquishing his two chips. 
If C, with one pair of aces, is a conservative 
player, has gone out, D, who has only two small 
pairs, will give up also. Then all the players 
having declined to "^^see^^ or bet E's ten chips, 
E will take the pool. There has been no bluff- 
ing. E has simply backed up his hand. Not 
being called, he is not forced to show his hand. 

Suppose, however, in the drawing, a good or 
helping card had been secured by only 0, who 
held the pair of aces, and that he had drawn 
another ace. When B passed out, C, having the 
best threes, would have seen E^s hand, accepted 
the wager of ten, and raised an additional ten. 



POKER. 81 



J), with two pairs only, caught between the 
cross-fires, would have beaten a precipitate ^— 
retreat. E, with three twos, might have thought 
that C was bluflfing. Prudence would dictate 
his not betting any more. He would have only 
seen C, and the hands being exposed, C^s three 
aces would have won the twenty-one chips E had 
bet. Having been called by E, both hands are 
shown. 

Taking the same condition of hands, B with a -~ P ^' 
flush to draw, C with two aces, D with two pairs, ' ^ 
and E with three twos, we will suppose that 
there has been this time no improvement in the 
hands. The betting is the same as before. 
C bets one chip, D sees it, and E goes ten bet- 
ter. B has not improved his hand at all. He 
thinks that E also actually has three twos and is 
bluffing. He sees E^s ten, and bets ten better. 
C and D are frightened out as before. E is not 
quite certain. B may have made a straight or a - 
full. His threes are the smallest in the pack. 
E may have been in bad luck. He hesitates. 
B looks very determined. E gives up, will not 
see the additional ten, and then B wins, or takes 
the pool and the wagers. He does not show his 
hand. He has not been called. This is a legit- 
imate bluff. B, being the age, has had some 
little advantage of the position. 

Taking again the same players with the same 



82 POKER. 



cards : suppose the hands had feeen improved by 
the drawing ; that C had drawn two more 
aces, that D had drawn another six, that E had 
added two kings to his threes, and that B had 
made that ra?^a avis, a straight flush. Then the 
ten^ as a limit, would be repeated by each player 
any number of times. C with the four aces 
knows that in all the multitudinous changes of 
cards there can be but one chance against him — 
the straight flush. To his misfortune, when the 
hands are called he finds this straight flush. If 
D and E are intelligent players, after they have 
made several bets which their adversaries have 
capped with other bets, they would have gone 
out, satisfied that they held losing hands. No 
combination of cards is impossible in poker. 
Two hands, each holding fours, have been often 
seen struggling for the victory, and fours have 
more than once succumbed to a straight flush. 

THE ELDER HAND. 

The condition of the elder hand or age must 
now be considered in regard to such advantage 
as it may possess, and raising in general be ex- 
plained. Before any new cards are taken, raising 
is legitimate. Eeferring to the diagram of the 
table and players, B being the age, and the last 
one to come in, C, D, E, and A have seen the 
wager of two chips, or ten chips ; when it is B's 



POKER. 



83 



turn to come in he can say : ^^I make my ante 
good; or my blind good^ and I raise it ten/^ 
This is the bet before any cards have been dealt. 
If then (as in the after case, when cards have 
been drawn, as previously explained) C, D, or E 
and A do not see B's bet^ though they have put 
up their two chips each, B wins. If any of the 
players^ howeyer^ see this extra wager of ten, 
made before new cards are given, they are all 
said '' to stay in.^^ Then the new cards are given 
to them as before, and the status of the game 
remains the same. 




A Dealer 



B being the age, the others coming in with 
inferior hands, say, B has the best cards, a 
flush. As he is the last to come in, when it is 
his turn he makes his ante good and raises 
it ten before cards are drawn. All the other 
players are frightened and go out. They will 



84 POKER, 



not see the wager ; B takes the two chips or 
the ten chips each of the others has put up at 
the beginning. He need not show his hand^ 
because no one had seen his bet. Suppose^ how- 
ever^ all had gone out but D, who held two pairs^ 
or one pair ; D draws one card and makes a 
full;, or three cards and makes a full^ he would 
accept any of B^s bets^ and the wagers would be 
exactly as in the former cases cited. But if he 
supposed B^ the age^ had nothing at all^ and 
raised ten at the starts before any cards were 
taken^ he might not draw any cards at all^ or 
only one card. Other players^ who came in 
with one pair, or two small pairs, might not see 
his next bet, that is, if he carried out his pur- 
pose of betting the limit. They would believe 
that he really held a strong hand. 

This is one of the advantages of the position, 
and is called holding the age. Raising can be 
made, however, by any of the players. Say B, 
the age, has put up his blind, one chip. C comes 
in, sees the chip ; putting up his two, and rais- 
ing it two. This would be bad play, because C 
would intimidate only the age, B, and drive him 
out. There are three more players to come 
after him. It would be bad policy then for C to 
raise. He would, if a good player, wait. If 
any one raised after him, before cards were taken, 
he would see this raise, and possibly raise it 



POKER. 



85 



again. Taking again the explanation with the 
diagram^ the following case is presented : 



Three 
deuces. 



Two small 
pairs. 




A Dealer 
A flush to draw. 



C comes in. It is not his place to raise^ nor 
is it DX hut E^ with three kings, raises the ante 
ten. A, who has a chance to make a flush, 
comes in, as do B and C. D may or may not 
come in. Say D goes out. B, C, and A have 
met E's raise. Cards are drawn with no im- 
provement. C bets first, say one chip. D is 
out. E, who has originally raised the blind, 
bets ten more. A, whose hand has not improved, 
passes out. B, who has three aces, sees the 
new bet of ten, and bets ten more. is intim- 
idated. E believes he has the best hand, and 
may make another bet. Say he sees B, and on 
showing cards he loses. Innumerable combina- 



86 POKER. 



tions might be presented : as of D holding three 
kings^ an E three aces ; C coming in with the 
ante^ and D seeing the raise of ten before cards 
have been drawn^ and raising it ten more. 

Two hands may each hold flushes^ and stand- 
ing ^^pat/'' that is^ having good cards (a per- 
fect hand, before a card is drawn), raise each 
other in the first stage of the game. In poker 
position has much to do with the game, and the 
age has only this advantage of position, for the 
chances of his having a good hand, so as not to 
lose the one chip he has been forced to put up, are 
small. He wagers his chip without having seen 
his cards, while the others know what they have 
before they come in. 

It is in '^^ raising, ^^ entirely apart from such 
cheating as may arise from " forcing a card,^^ 
that fraud in poker is possible, and a fraud 
exceedingly difficult to detect. A player may 
be '^ forced out ^^ or ^' raised out '' by a combina- 
tion of two players who have previously agreed 
to such a rascally performance. Taking the 
diagram with the same players, C and E, or any 
two players, may have agreed to combine and 
raise out other players. This conspiracy, as has 
been stated, is exceedingly difficult to detect. 
Players have not the right to even say to one 
another in private, '^When I raise you, you 
may be sure I have a hand.^"" It gives to each of 



POKER. 87 



them an undue advantage. It is a secret ar- 
rangement^ and^ being such^ is nothing else 
than a fraud. 

OF DRAWING. 

If the player determines to draw to a pair, 
he draws three cards. If he draws to two pairs, 
he draws one card. 

If he holds three to begin with, he draws two 
cards, in order to have the best chance of making 
a full, inasmuch as in playing pairs are apt to run 
together. But to deceive his adversaries, and 
make them think he has nothing better than two 
pairs, a sharp player will draw but one card to 
his threes. 

It is advisable sometimes to keep an ace or 
other high card as an '^^ outsider ^^ with a small 
pair, and draw two cards — thus taking the 
chances of matching the high card, and so get- 
ting two good pairs, or possibly something better, 
— while at the same time others may be deceived 
into believing that the player is drawing to threes. 

When drawing to cards of the same suit to 
try to make a flush, or to cards of successive 
denominations to try to make a sequence, only 
one card is to be taken. This will be needed to 
fill out the flush or the sequence. But it is 
seldom advisable to venture a draw for either a 
flush or sequence when more than one card is re- 
quired to complete the hand„ 



88 POKER. 



• When a player holds fours in his original 
hand^ this is as good as it can be ; and yet it is 
best to throw away the outside card and draw 
one, because others may then think he is only 
drawing to two pairs, or for a flush or sequence, 
and will not suspect the value of the hand. 

When one is in (though he ought seldom to 
be) without even as much as a pair, his choice 
must be either to discard four cards, or three 
cards, and draw to the highest or two highest 
in the hand, or throw away the whole hand and 
draw five, or look content and serious, stand pat, 
and bet high. 

The player determining to try this last alter- 
native on a worthless hand had generally better 
begin by raising when he goes in, or else nobody 
will be likely to believe in his pretended strong 
hand. 

PROBABILITIES. 

The probabilities of receiving a specified poker 
hand in the deal are as follows : 



Fours 




4,164 " 
693 '' 


Full 




Flush 




507 '' 


Straight ( sequence ) 
Threes 




254 " 
45 " 


Two T)airs .... 




20 " 


One pair .... 




lA " 




Or, 10 in 


13 '' 



POKER. 89 



The draw, of course, modifies these j)ropor- 
tions, and gives the player increased chances. 
But it would require too much space to give the 
chances in these cases, 

TECHNICAL TERMS KNOWN IN POKER. 

The Age. — Designation of the player whose 
place is after the dealer. The age never passes. 

The A:n'TE. — The bet made by the dealer, 
and applicable to any of the stakes put up in 
the game, at the entrance of the players. 

Blaze. — A hand which holds all the picture 
cards, an ace being considered as a court card. 
It beats two pairs. The blaze is rarely played, 
and should be ruled out. 

Blixd. — This is the stake put up by the age. 
He doubles it if he wishes to play. Not want- 
ing to play, he abandons it. All the players 
double the blind. 

Call. — This term means that one player sees 
the bet of another, and will not advance the bet. 
Then the cards are shown. But it is only the 
last bettor, or the one nearest to the player to the 
right of the person who has raised, who can call, 
and so calling, no one else betting higher, this 
closes the game. 

Chips. — Counters. 

To CHIP 1^. — To put counters on the table. 
Equivalent to entering into the game. 



90 POKER. 



Discard. — To throw out cards from the 
hand first dealt. 

Draw. — To take new cards. 

Eldest Haj^d. — The player to the left of 
the dealer. 

Filling. — To improve the hand by means of 
the cards drawn. 

Freeze-Out. — Five players each take the 
same number of cards, and play until one of 
them has won all the chips or counters. Those 
who lose are '^^ frozen out.^^ 

Going Better. — When a player raises or 
bets an amount higher than the player to the 
right of him, he ^'^ raises. ^^ 

Goii^G In, — The elder hand makes his 
^^ blind good^^ ; that is, he accepts the wagers of 
the rest, and adding more chips, makes his blind 
good. Any one entering the game '^'^goes in.^^ 

Goii^G Out. — The reverse of the above. 

Limit. — Before a game is commenced it is 
agreed that so many chips shall be the limit. 
Above this no bet can be made ; but the amount 
of the limit in the betting may be made over 
and over again. No game ever should be played 
without a limit. 

Makikg Good. — Putting up the number of 
chips any one else has bet. 

Original Hakd. — The first five cards dealt 
before the draw. 



POKER. 91 



Pat Hakd. — Is a hand as it is first dealt, by 
supposition only a perfect hand ; as a straight^ 
a flush, or a full. A pat hand may have nothing 
in it. ^'^I play pat/^ means that a player does 
not want any cards in the draw. 

Pass. — When a player does not come in at 
all^ or gives up his hand after a raise, this is a 
pass. 

The Pot. — All the chips on the table. 

To See. — Is equivalent to calling a bet. 

To Straddle. — To double the ante. 

There are innumerable cant terms peculiar to 
localities. To keep two small cards and an ace 
is called holding up '^ a kicker.'^ This draw is 
made by the player, hopeful of getting two pairs, 
with the additional ace or king. The term two 
pairs, ^^ queens up,^^ means that the queens are 
the highest cards of the two pairs. '' Tens up '^ 
would mean that the tens were the highest cards. 
A f ull^ ''^ kings up ^^ ; a flush, '^'^ace up^^; can 
be at once understood. When a big bet is made 
which drives out the other players, they are 
sometimes said to be ^^ blown out. ■'^ 

THE JACK-POT= 

The jack-pot may be an innovation, and con- 
trary to the traditions of the game, but it is 
universally accepted to-day. It differs from any- 
thing else in the game, because it arbitrarily 



92 POKER. 



forces every player to ante. In all other phases 
of poker it is only the age who antes. In the 
prehistoric period of poker the way of playing 
when every one passed out was for the age to 
withdraw his ante. When he dealt^ in his turn, 
the next age put up the ante. It was not un- 
usual for several rounds to be dealt, and for 
everybody to pass out. This became monoto- 
nous ; and then somebody invented the jack- 
pot. 

The way of playing the jack-pot is as follows : 
When all pass out, the age leaves up his ante, 
and all the other players put up their antes or 
chips in equal amounts to the age's ante. The 
cards are dealt for the next round by the next 
player. It differs again from the ordinary game, 
inasmuch as there is no elder hand, no one hold- 
ing the age. 

To open the jack-pot, some one must have at 
the least a pair of jacks. He can open it then 
with jacks or better. But if no one has a pair 
of jacks, or better, each player again contributes 
a chip, and a new deal is in order. A half 
dozen rounds may be dealt, and the jack-pot not 
opened. There is nothing obligatory about enter- 
ing. A player may hold a pair of jacks and not 
open. Supposing a player has a pair of jacks or 
better, he opens the jack-pot, that is, he wagers 
so many chips. The rest see it, or not^ as they 



POKER. 93 



please. If they do not see his wager^ he takes 
the pot. The opener makes^ however^ the first 
bet^ and the betting proceeds to his left as in the 
ordinary game. 

Sometimes^ by prior arrangement^ an ascend- 
ing scale is determined on for opening the jack- 
pot^ beginning with jacks. At the first rounds 
say it is not opened^ no one having jacks or bet- 
ter. Then for the second rounds queens or bet- 
ter are required ; for the third, kings or better ; 
and for the fourth, aces or better. Sometimes, 
when the round of aces is reached, the opening 
continues at aces. Occasionally, the opening 
changes in the descending scale, after aces are 
reached, going down to kings, then to queens, 
and to jacks again. But this ascending or de- 
scending scale is not often played, becanso it 
leads to frequent mistakes. The best way is to 
make jacks the openers, and to keep the opening 
at jacks. Of course anything better than jacks, 
as a pair of queens, kings, or aces, and all the 
other combinations, open the jack-pot. The 
opener of the jack-pot must show his hand at 
the end of the round. 

There is one case of opening the jack-pot 
which leads to many disputes. The rule being 
that jacks will open the pot, how shall this be 
construed when a player has a pair of jacks, his 
hand being made up, say, of the jack of dia- 



94 POKER. 



monds^ the jack of hearts, and three other hearts ? 
He has a perfect right to open. He has in his 
jacks the key to the situation. But has he the 
privilege of throwing away a jack^ say his jack 
of diamonds, and then draw, hoping to make a 
heart flush ? Now, it may happen that A opens, 
and has the two jacks, with the combination of 
cards just presented, B and C come in, and D 
raises. A may want to take the risk of throw- 
ing away his jack of diamonds, so as to draw the 
flush. Sometimes it has been decided that the 
player may draw for the flush, on condition that 
he puts the card he discards face down before 
him, so that he may show after the round 
that he had a pair of jacks, because there is a 
penalty, to be explained afterward, for a mis- 
take made in opening the jack-pot. It has 
been declared that this drawing to a flush can- 
not be made. In some clubs an arrangement 
has been made, that the person drawing for the 
flush should announce the same, exhibiting the 
discarded picture-card. But this is all against 
the opener of the jack-pot, as it exposes his 
hand. The best authorities on this subject have 
decided that the player opening the jack-pot must 
show cards which contained the positive evidence 
that he held a hand of a fixed value. It may 
be improved by the draw, as a pair made, two 
pairs, or threes, or fulls, but if he is the opener^ 



POKER. 95 



he cannot draw to a straight or a flush. Aside 
from an exact construction of the rule^ as jack- 
pots are the most important of all the phases 
of the game, the amount of chips on the table 
being the largest^ when it is played^ to put a 
card on the table is to favor fraud. The editor, 
notwithstanding many differences of ideas ad- 
vanced in regard to this point, is most decidedly 
of the opinion that this rule should be enforced. 
Of course this has nothing to do with the rest 
of the players who come in. They may draw 
as they please, and come in with anything they 
like. 

When a jack-pot is opened through a mistake 
of the player, he has to pay for his error, and 
this penalty should be insisted upon. This pen- 
alty varies according to agreement. Sometimes 
the person making the blunder is mulcted to 
three times the amount in the pot. This we 
think to be too severe. The fact of making the 
mistake, though the error is discovered before 
the cards are drawn, makes no difference. The 
party making the blunder is ruled out. Suppose 
that A has made this mistake, is not aware of it 
at once, and B, C, D, and E enter. A declares 
his mistake, and is ruled out. Then the round 
may begin over again ; but if any others of the 
players have a pair of opening cards, they open 
the pot. The status of the other players is not 



96 POKER. 



changed by A^s mistake. Even if A does not 
find out Ms error^ and has drawn cards^ and the 
others have done the same^ and then A makes 
known his error^ the rule holds good. If the 
others have not had openers^ even if one player 
with a pair of deuces had drawn two other 
deuces, it makes no matter. It is for this reason 
that the hand of the person opening the jack- 
pot should always be closely scrutinized. He 
must expose it after the round, whether he has 
lost or won. 

The temptation to open a jack-pot by a ras- 
cally player being great, the pot always being 
large, the utmost vigilance should be used. Ex- 
perience shows that a great many of the frauds 
of poker are concentrated around jack-pots. 

THE STRADDLE. 

" I shall raise you hy and hy^ 

Julius Ccesar. Act lY., Scene 3d. 

The straddle is simply an augmentation of 
the original ante. A being the dealer, B the 
age, and putting up, say, one chip, it being so 
far two chips to come in, C may straddle — that 
is, he puts up two chips, and says, " I straddle. ^^ 
Then it takes four chips to come in. If B wants 
to make his blind good he puts in three more 
chips, as do all the other players. But if B de- 
clines to see the straddle, C takes B^s chip. When 



POKEK. 97 



the anteing takes place^ or coming in prior to 
receiving cards in the draw^ the person who has 
straddled is the last to ante^ or make good. This 
gives him the opportunity of position^ and he 
can raise. When the draw is completed^ B^'s 
age is retained^ just as heretofore^ and he has the 
last betting. The advantage to the straddler is 
only before the draw. But the straddle must 
come from the player after the age^ and from no 
other. A dealings B is the age^ and C can strad- 
dle — E cannot^ but E can over-straddle B within 
the limit. 

THE AGE. 

" Ma7'Jc you this.'''' 
Much Ado About Nothing. Act /., Scene 1st. 

Although everybody is supposed to know what 
the '^ age ^' means at poker^ there is no rule 
more commonly blundered about. The rule 
must be taken in its strictest sense. In no man- 
ner whatsoever ought it to be departed from 
except in jack-pot. If the age B passes out, 
abandons his chip, and D comes in and all the 
rest, though B is out of the game D must bet 
first. It may be a relic of superstition, this 
tenacious holding of the age, but all conservative 
players insist on the maintenance of the rule. 
What it does, when once established, is to pre- 
clude constant mistakes and doubts as to the 
first bet. 



98 POKER. 



The only exception is then in the jack-pot. 
In the jack-pot the age has made a forced con- 
tribution^ and his age has gone^ according to 
the rule of jack-pots. (See Jack-pot.) 

ADVICE TO PLAYERS. 

" Therefore he adnisedy 

Merchant of Venice. Act 11.^ Scene 1st, 

There are no rules for playing poker so as to 
win. Advice may be given so as to limit losses. 
All absolute laws as to how you must play end 
in disaster. A good player varies his game. He 
may play a poor game for a while on purpose. 
To deceive is the acme of poker playing. The 
strong point in poker is never to lose your tem- 
per^ either with those you are playing with or, 
more particularly, with the cards. There is no 
sympathy at poker. Always keep cool. If you 
lose your head you will lose all your chips. Po- 
ker being as much a criterion of character as 
anything else, keep in the shade your personali- 
ties. As Mr. Cable has it, ^^ a man who can 
play delightfully on a guitar and keep a knife 
in his boot^^ (see p. 12) would be a perfect poker 
player. Always believe in the equalization of 
chances. If your king flush is beaten twice 
hand running by an ace flush to-day, to-mor- 
row you will hold the ace flushes and your 



POKER. 99 

adversaries the king flushes. If you begin to 
draw for flushes and straights and cannot fill 
them, you must continue trying to fill them, 
otherwise you throw away your chance of equal- 
izing your draw. P ^jf^Tio-Pr i-^ ^^ ^ of the strong 
pohits of p(>k pj\ just as much as cheek. He 
who waits longest finds his opportunity. A player 
who never bluffs at poker is not in sympathy 
with the game. His battery is never niasked. 
The enemy gives him a wide berth ; when his 
guns are shotted no foes ever approach. He 
fires a volley and kills a lame duck. Too much 
curiosity is ruinous. All the money saved at 
poker comes from not seeing. To be over-timid 
is an equal fault. It is perfectly legitimate to 
tell stories at poker. All is fair in love, war, 
and poker. 

To adhere to anything but the strictly truth- 
ful brings with poker no moral obliquity. As 
it is impossible for some players not to lie when 
they play, this want of veracity brings its own 
cure. It is not, however, a good rule to tell 
stories about your hand. You may, if you have 
the talent for such things, assume an innocent 
guise with your face alone. This is the most 
effective of lures. It is best never to show your 
hand at all, if not called, and to remain silent in 
regard to its merits. A solemn mystery in re- 
gard to your cards is the most effective. Though 



100 POKER. 



a hand which is miscalled when shown rests 
solely on its face value^ avoid doing this. It 
should^ in fact^ never be permitted. It induces 
fraud. An adversary might throw down his 
cards^ the winning ones^ when another player 
announced something which he did not have. 
As the holder of the best cards has thrown them 
away^, they cannot be found again, and he loses, 
whereas he should have won. It is, at the least, 
an ungentlemanly trick. It irritates the best- 
tempered players. When a player leaves the 
room no hand should be dealt him, No two 
persons ever ought to have an interest in the 
same hand. The reasons for this are legion. 
The strongest is, that it prevents rascality. 
Then, again, when another player takes the hand 
of a person who is not present, and enters or 
makes a bet, it gives an additional strength to 
the hand, which is unfair. Never play poker 
without a limit. It is then the most dangerous 
of all games. 

POSITION AND PROBABILITIES. 

" That the strait pass was damm'dy 

Cymheline. Act F., Scene 3d. 

The study of the theory of probabilities for the 
playing of poker, ^. e.^ how to win at it, may be 
very good in its way. The examination of the 
chance laws is a most interesting one. For 



POKETt. 101 

practical use they are of no value. No one save 
a genius^ in the possession of an exceptional 
memory, playing like an automaton, could carry 
these laws into actual practice, and such a gifted 
individual does not usually sit at a poker-table. 

Everybody knows that before the draw one 
pair is more commonly held than two pairs ; and 
that after the draw, to receive another pair is 
more usual than to get a third card, which 
makes threes. The progression of difficulties is 
at once understood when the scale of winning 
combinations is examined, and for the rarity of 
such combinations the laws of chance may be 
studied. 

For those interested in such mathematical 
problems, the laws of chance relative to poker 
are presented in this volume, due to such author- 
ities as Pole and Proctor. '^'^ Cavendish ^^ has 
also written a learned paper on this same topic, 
but we do not print it, as being too abstract for 
common use. 

There are some very simple, common-sense 
facts in poker in regard to the advantages of 
position, which positions are, of course, always 
changing. 

The hand after the age, designated as C, after 
A the dealer, and B the age, has the worst posi- 
tion. If he has anything he comes in first, and 
has to stand the entrance or the possible raises 



102 POKER. 



of all who are after him. C then is in the posi- 
tion of a man running the gauntlet. For posi- 
tion the advantage lies with the last man, who 
is the age. He winds up the performance. If 
he happens to hold^a good hand, anything above 
the average — as a pair of aces, or two pairs — he 
should raise before the draw is made. The 
chances are that he has the best hand, or even if 
he has not, that he forces out some of the others. 
They will not see his raise, and he carries off the 
pool. 

If all the other players go out, the dealer with 
a low pair has a good chance of winning against 
the blind. It is the exact reverse of the position 
of C, who plays when he enters against four. A, 
the dealer, plays only against B, the blind. The 
chances are that the blind has nothing, and gives 
up. 

For the first player after the age, or C, to 
raise is a stupidity. All he can do is then to 
win the aged's half ante ; for if he has not a fair 
hand, the age will give it up. This raise too at 
the beginning drives out all the others, unless 
they hold good hands. C must always play a 
waiting game. If he has a strong hand, he sees 
the raises or may raise in his turn. 

If C comes in it is not wise for D to raise, be- 
cause E and A and B are after him. The blind, 
who is never given credit for holding anything, 



POKER. 103 



is in the best position to raise^ not alone because 
he is the last^ but for the reason that his raise is 
the most unexpected. It is, therefore, good 
tactics if he has a pair over the average to raise. 
But the age still remains the most wasting as to 
chips of all the positions. 

If a player Avere to retain the age through a 
whole game, there are ninety-nine chances in a 
hundred that he would lose. A great many 
chips are lost by the age by the mere fact of his 
doubling his ante, or making his blind good, re- 
lying on his holding one small pair, lower than 
the average. Taking three minutes as the 
average time to finish one round at poker, when 
five are playing, within an hour the ante-man 
will have put up twenty chips. If he plays 
three hours, he has offered up sixty chips. If 
he has made his blind good, that would be one 
hundred and twenty chij)s. The chances would 
be, that as age he held originally some fair hands. 
The probabilities, if given all in his favor, would 
be when he won with some of his hands. But 
calculating all to his advantage, it is quite cer- 
tain that if he comes in with a small pair he 
will lose in the three hours ninety chips. To 
have the age and to bluff with a small pair is 
very great folly, and this adds to ruin. 

For the age to raise induces the players to 
believe that there is a bluff in the air, and it 



104 POKEit. 



looks^ from a study of the game^ as if the age 
were more constantly called than any other 
hand. 

The dangers of the age cannot be too much 
expatiated upon. It is the finest and the worst 
position at the same time. Steady^ experienced 
players^ when more than one come in, often 
make it a rule to abandon their chip if they hold 
a pair lower than tens. C, if he knows what he 
is about, will never come in first with less than 
tens ; and D ought to have even better. The 
percentage against C^s winning then is very 
great. 

'^^All in the draw.^^ When a person who 
holds the age believes in that, it is ruin. Sup- 
pose you do go in with two nines, and draw a 
third, making three nines. The chances are 
just as good for another player to have taken in 
another ten, or another jack, queen, king, or 
ace, and then you are beaten. You started too 
low, and your improvement is only so much the 
worse for you. It requires no explanation to 
understand that your adversary's two pairs, made 
during the draw, Avith their jacks up, are better 
than yours, with tens up. 

To straddle is a weakness. It confers no pos- 
sible benefit. You assume for the moment the 
apparent advantages of the age, and then when 
you want this advantage the most — that is, to 



POKER. 105 



bet last — 3'oii have^ according to the rule^ to 
give it up. You have simply doubled the ante. 
This may or may not intimidate the rest of the 
players. It ought never to frighten out the 
age if he has a pair. The age^ if he has a sin- 
gle pair^ will see the straddle, with good chances 
of winning. The person who straddles often 
forgets that the active condition of the game is 
something entirely different from the passive 
one. 

Entrance into the game by the last player, A 
the dealer, when C, D, and E are in, unless he 
has a good pair, is folly. 

When players meet frequently, they all know 
that a wild player, if there is such a one among 
them, is certain to lose in the long run. Steady 
play — conservative poker — is absolutely sure to 
worst him. He may have occasional flights of 
luck, and draw ^'^ a tan-yard from a shoe-string '' ; 
but that kind of thing does not last long. He 
may win largely once in awhile, and all the rest 
of the time lose quite as largely. 

It may be denied, but experienced players 
rarely enter without a pair of jacks or better. 
It is even under exceptional circumstances that 
they draw for a straight or a flush. At the 
first to go in, after the blind, they let the 
straights and flushes severely alone. If they 
have the age they will draw on straights and 



106 POKER. 



flushes and may or may not raise. If there are 
many players, then old players take their chance 
with a flush or straight to draw to. 

With all these explanations for playing^ 
founded on common-sense principles, there are 
numerous exceptions. These exceptions do not 
arise from the laws of chance, but have to do 
with the idiosyncrasies of the players. Most of 
the money lost at poker comes from seeing. 
Curiosity is fatal. All the money saved arises 
from want of curiosity. Still, take the player 
who has won twice hand running, his hand hav- 
ing been called, if he makes a high bet a third 
time with a new hand, there are many chances 
that he is bluffing. It is not likely that he will 
have three times consecutively the best cards. 

Whether to draw for a straight or a flush de- 
pends not only on position but how many cards 
your adversaries take. If you see the blind, and 
have, say, four hearts, or four clubs, spades, or 
diamonds, your four cards ending with a queen, 
king, or ace, and the other card being a queen, 
king, or ace, you have a pair. Are you to re- 
tain a pair or draw for a flush ? If the majority 
of those before you draw one card, they may also 
be drawing to a flush or straight, but at the 
same time they may have two pairs or threes. If 
the majority of the adversaries draw one card, 
what should you do? We would not advise 



POKER. 107 



throwing away the queens, but to draw three 
cards. If you make two pairs or three queens, 
your hand is above the average. But we would 
throw away a pair of tens. Having a straight 
to make, the same plan is recommended. If 
the flush is made, or the straight, of course the 
advantages of this hand are immense. The 
temptation to raise on a straight to be made or 
a flush to be made is very great, as it is likewise 
for players having the making of these two com- 
binations to see the raises. They look, when 
one card is drawn, like two pairs or threes in 
hand. The player raising on a flush or straight 
in the future is bound to bet on it, and mostly 
wins, providing other players have only two 
small pairs. It is here that the bluff must be 
pushed home. 

How to draw on threes, whether by taking 
two cards or by dispensing with their presence, 
asking for one card is only a question of ex- 
pediency. Poker, in order to be well played, 
must be ever changing in its methods. Deceit 
is the constant element. It is quite unlikely 
that when C is raised by D, and that C only 
takes two cards, that he has not a honaficle trip- 
let. If you have raised on two pairs, you had 
better treat the matter mildly, and if he raises, 
go out. Even four of a kind may be disguised 
by the drawing of one card, or by standing pat. 



108 POKER. 



In fact^ whether there is aii5^thing in a hand or 
not, can never be known until it is called ; with 
threes, is it then better to draw two cards or one ? 
If two cards were drawn, the chances of making 
a four are possible ; but at the same time, the 
value of the hand is given away to the players. 
The probabilities of having fours are 4,164 to 
1 ; of a full, 693 to 1. Many players having 
threes, discard, invariably, the lowest card. 
They believe that the higher cards have been 
retained by the other hands coming in. The 
only thing in regard to the discard of the lowest 
card is, that once begun it must always be 
continued. 

Theoretically, calculations as to what should 
happen with cards do not avail against what 
actually does take place. Luck is a perverse 
jade, and refuses to be bridled. In theory, in 
10,900 games of poker there ought to occur at 
least fours ten times. In an actual game, fours 
never came out but once, and yet at one sitting, 
on three occasions fours have appeared and dur- 
ing the same time two straight flushes. More 
straights per contra by fifty per cent, were dealt 
in an actual game than should have been theo- 
retically present. There were sixty dealt, while 
there should have been but forty, according to 
the books. Strangely enough, the threes tallied 
"with the theory, and in two pairs and single 



POKER. 109 



pairs the players and the theorists Avere wonder- 
fully close. 

A player ought in a certain way to equalize 
his chances^ and do the same thing over and over 
again. This equalization of his chances^ and 
the advantages of it^ may not be apparent dur- 
ing one game^ but only during a series of games. 
Win to-day, lose to-morrow, is the maxim. It 
is not the cards that change, it is human nature. 

When a player takes but one card, it is a rule 
among conservative players to see his bet, if they 
have a good hand, but not to raise him. This 
rule is applied when only two are in. Two fulls 
may meet each other in this dull way. But it is 
foreign to the game of poker, and belongs to 
the automatic way of playing. 

It is impossible to estimate the value of a 
hand. The heaviest losses may be made on four 
kings. Jfever think how much you may win on 
a good hand, but how much you can lose. There 
is no such thing as cowardice at poker. A player 
has stood on a pat, ace, king, flush, and, raising, 
seen without raising another flush which had 
drawn on four cards, with an ace, king, queen, 
flush, and thereby the holder of the pat hand 
saved innumerable chips — it having cost him no 
more than if he had had two pairs, ace high. 
Those who pity '"^your poor play^^ are by no 
means willing to share your risks. 



110 POKER. 



Jack-pots have very mucli changed the char- 
acter of the game, and in one respect to its 
detriment. On the other hand, it has equalized 
poker. It is really at best but a show of hands. 
A great deal depends in jack-pot on the char- 
acter of the game, whether it is a high or a 
low one. Among conservative players, the first 
player, C, will not open on jacks ; the risk is 
too great. If all pass to the dealer, he is safe 
to open on jacks. Some players will never open 
themselves or come in afterward without two 
good pairs, at the lowest kings up, or threes. 

The losses at jack-pot, where the limit is 
reached every time, are heavier, it should be 
remembered, than at any other period during 
the game. Bluffing in the play of jack-pot 
should be eschewed — nothing is more dangerous. 
The chances are, that starting in with good 
hands, the bluff will be seen. A conservative 
player is never tempted in a jack-pot, with a 
flush or straight to be drawn to. To raise the 
opener of a jack-pot requires a good hand. If 
the player after the opener raises, and the opener 
raises in his turn, do nothing more than call, 
unless a superlative hand is there. 

A trick in the jack-pot, when all have passed 
up to E and E opens, is for A, the last to come 
in, to raise him. All the others are weak, hav- 
ing passed out once, and it is likely that E will 



POKER. Ill 



drop. But this is, like all things in poker, un- 
certain. 

In all these hints as to playing poker, the sup- 
position is, that there is a limit. In fact, this 
treatise on poker is written only for those who 
play with a limit. To play poker without a limit 
is ruin. The game without a limit brings to the 
front all the rascals. It is a temptation to fraud. 

It is rather difficult to state what shall be the 
limit. Penny-ante, with a limit of 20 cents, 
suffices for all amusement. The losses may he 
$5 ; with a $1 limit, $10 ; with a 12 limit, $75 ; 
with a $5 limit, $250. It is the limit which 
largely increases the losses. A player may lose 
$5 and go to bed happy. But with a loss of 
$250, it is pretty certain that the player does not 
sleep sweetly. A heavy game is destructive of 
poker. No purse is big enough to stand it. In 
fact, harmless as is poker when played with 
reason, when unreasonably indulged in it ends 
with desolation and dishonor. 

PLAYING THE PAT HAND. 

^''Little better than played the jack with us^ 

Tempest. Act IV. ^ Scene 1st, 

The pat hand means a hand which is played 
without having recourse to the draw. It may 
contain anything, from cards of no value up to 
t^^traight flush. There are all possibilities in a 



112 POKEK. 



pat hand. Sometimes a player will raise on a 
pat hand according to position, and when called 
may exhibit two poor or two good pairs, or threes. 
He has played a mongrel pat. He had something 
and wanted to make his hand appear stronger 
than it really was. Such a hand containing two 
small pairs or three deuces, if started by a raise 
and backed up by a bluff, might make a better 
hand of threes, or a very low straight, take 
water. 

Where poker is played according to the spirit 
of the game, it is pretty certain that one eighth 
of the pat hands are bogus ; because they are 
made to appear more frequently than the laws 
of chance permit. It is a very puzzling play to 
face with success. A good player, however, 
often employs it. When in the draw the first 
player who comes in refuses any fresh cards, it 
looks as if he really had pat a ready-made hand. 
When several are in, and bet a single chip, 
showing little strength, the final raise on the pat 
hand, which has nothing, generally takes the pot. 

When a real pat hand, which has a straight, 
flush, full, fours, or a straight flush comes to a 
player, the holding of either of them often in- 
duces an overestimation of their values. The 
straight may begin with an ace and end with a 
five, then it is the lowest ; or it may be a flush 
with only ten high, or a full of deuces. The 



POKER. 113 



better it is^ the more you may count on its win- 
ning ; but never lose your head over a pat hand. 
Nothing is invincible in poker but a straight 
flush, ace high. 

With a ionafide pat in hand, having position, 
and raising, watch out for those drawing one 
card, if, after your final raise, they raise back on 
you. If your straight is low, or your flush is 
low, or your full is low, you might be then very 
expensively beaten. 

The pat hand with nothing in it, is, among 
good players, a very likely bluff. If it wins it is 
always shown by them. Then a reputation for 
bluffing is gained by the player, which is exactly 
w^hat he has been trying to establish. 

It is, of course, impossible with a simulated 
pat hand not to bet on it. The least timidity 
exposes it. That would be like a battery having 
a heavy gun letting off' a squib. Occasionally a 
wheedling bet, however, as if the player implored 
the others to see him, wins the pot. The other 
players think it a tempting lure, and say, ^^No, 
I thank you ! ^^ and are taken in. 

PUSHING YOUR LUCK. 

*' Pray you, come in.'''' 

Othello. Act III., Scene 1st. 

What is called ^^ pushing your luck '' at poker 
is often expatiated upon. ^^ All in the draw^^ "^s 



114 POKER, 



frequently repeated. There are certain series 
which do appear m certain games. In poker 
there is only one which you can take advantage 
of. The player who holds most frequently two 
pairs will win. It is not the single immense 
pots which help the pile of chips, but the bulk 
of the small ones. Sometimes a player for hours 
will never hold a single pair higher than fives. 
Then he must learn patience and stay out. Then 
may come the picture-card periods and the 
threes. It is then wise under certain circum- 
stances to play them for what they are worth. 
But ''^ to push your luck/^ as many poker players 
understand it, is to come in with nothing, and 
trust to chance to improve. This always depletes 
a player. 

Steadiness in play often makes up for losses. 
It is not a great hand that makes a player square 
or ahead, but often a moderate hand, so that it 
comes in at the right time. Threes win more 
than fulls. Bide your time, is the best rule. 
Show no impatience. Eemember that there is 
equalization of chances. When losing, beware of 
making the straddle. To straddle is to force 
your luck. Be more observant than ever. 
Watch, when you are going ^^to the bad,^^ who 
has won or who has lost. The winners may show 
greed or covetousness. Try and appreciate the 
differences in their methods of playing. 



POKER. 115 



To cut short your losses can be done only in 
one way. This is a term frequently used, and 
its application is not well understood. It means 
simply this : You are willing to lose $5 ; lose 
that and not another cent. That is '''^cutting 
short your losses.^" '^^Let your profits go on/^ 
means that you can keep on as long as you are 
winning. There is a great deal of selfishness 
about poker. 



QUESTIONS AT POKER. 

" Vd have it come to qtiestion.^'' 

King Lear. Act I.^ Scene 3d. 

Every player, including the dealer, must an- 
nounce how many cards he wants in tones loud 
enough to be heard by all. If the dealer does 
not take any cards, he must announce that he 
stands pat. This should be insisted upon. The 
dealer might hold a bona fide pat hand, and 
saying nothing, disguise the strength of his 
cards. 

The indication made by a sign, as of thumping 
on the table when no cards are taken, if alone 
used is out of order. No pantomime is permis- 
sible in poker. A player may thump all he 
pleases, but must also say, ^' I do not want any 
cards. ''^ The thump may be misinterpreted, for 



116 POKER. 



it is often used with a less degree of force^ when 
players pass out. 

It occasionally happens that a player's atten- 
tion is unavoidably withdrawn for a moment 
during the draw^ and he does not see or hear 
how many cards an opponent takes. This gives 
rise to one of the most disputed questions in 
poker. Is the dealer^ upon being asked the 
question how many cards any player drew^ bound 
to answer or not ? Some players insist that 
he is not bound to and should not answer. 
Still every player has an equal right to know 
how many cards another drew. If four players 
of five in a game know how many cards a 
certain person drew^ and the fifth player does 
not know, the four players have an advantage 
over the fifth. 

The latest decision is that the dealer must 
answer if the question is put before a bet is 
made. 

TABLE STAKES. 

" I must have leave to pass.'*'' 

Conolanus. Act V. , Scene M. 

By table stakes, or playing table stakes, a 
person who bets must have the money before 
him. It prevents any credit. You cannot owe 
when ^^ table stakes '' are played, nor can you be 



POKER. 117 



raised out for more chips or money than yon 
have before you ; as far as reducing credit to a 
minimum^ it is useful. 

In olden times, when table stakes were played, 
it was emploj^ed as a device to drive out another 
player. If he had not the chips or money, he 
left. He had, however, one recourse. He might 
declare his ability to raise the money. Then the 
game was closed for the time being, and the 
hands sealed up for twelve hours. Then if he 
showed up with the money the game was 
continued. 

THE FREEZE-OUT„ 

" I pray you, pass with your best 'violence.''^ 

Hamlet. Act F., Scene 2d. 

The freeze-out is so called because when it is 
played all the performers are left out in the cold, 
with the exception of one. It is a duel at cards. 
In a certain way it has its advantages, because it 
limits individual losses. The players each take 
the same number of chips, and the game closes 
when one player has won them all. For example, 
five players . each take twenty chips. There are 
one hundred chips out. The freeze-out is ended 
when one of the party has the one hundred 
chips. The game is carried on under all the 
rules of poker, with, however, this exception. 



118 POKER. 



and that is in regard to the limit, for it never 
should be played without the limit. Say the 
limit is ten, one player or more is reduced to 
his last five chips. The player having the bulk 
of chips cannot then insist on the limit, he can 
only bet as many chips as his adversaries have. 
The freeze-out is not precisely a social game, 
because necessarily the players drop out one by 
one. At the conclusion of the game it is obvious 
that great caution is necessary. The last chips 
are carefully nursed. Jack-pots are not generally 
played in a freeze-out, but this is optional. 



THE WIDOW, OR KITTY„ 

'* If this be worth your hearing^ mark ity 

Cymbeline. Act /., Scene 1st. 

By the widow, or as it is more commonly 
known as ^^kitty,^^ is meant a percentage, taken 
in chips at certain occasions during the game of 
poker. This percentage may be put to the 
account of the club where the game is being 
played, and defrays the cost of cards, use of 
chips, gas, attendance, etc. The kitty may, 
however, be introduced when no expenses occur. 
When threes or better are made on a called 
hand, or when jack-pots are played, one chip is 
taken from the pool and put aside. These chips 
amount to quite a number at the end of the 



POKER. 119 



game. Then they may be either divided among 
the players or made into jack-pots, as a consola- 
tion stake, and so wind up the game. 

BUCK. 

' * A further er in the act.'''' 

Tempest. Act F., Scene 1st. 

Originally the buck was a pocket-knife passing 
always to the left, indicating only the deal. 
Perhaps from the handle of the knife being of 
buckhorn the term is derived. By a process of 
evolution, the buck in poker is made sometimes 
a representative of value, and can be put up by 
the age. It may designate a certain number of 
chips, say, for instance, five. Then, if the age 
makes his blind good, he puts up five more chips. 
The rest of the players, when they come in, do 
the same thing. The person who wins it, when 
he is the age puts up the buck. When the 
game is over, the person who has issued the buck 
redeems it^ at the value he put on it. 

In some cases the buck is used in order to 
induce the jack-pot, of course by prior agree- 
ment. Whoever has the buck, when he deals 
puts it on the table with tw^o or more chips, and 
then all contribute to making a jack-pot. Who- 
ever w^ins the jack-pot, when it is his turn to 
deal puts it up, and another jack-pot is in order. 



120 POKEii. 



Too many jack-pots in a game, or forced con- 
tributions^ destroy the character of poker. They 
come in sufficient frequency under ordinary 
circumstances. 

A knife is not an obligatory buck. In the Far 
West a revolver on the table sometimes serves 
the purpose of a buck. 



POKER PRINCIPLES AND CHANCE LAWS. 

BY RICHARD A. PROCTOR. 

'' Think what a chance thou changest on.'''' 

Cymbeline. Act /., Scene 5th. 

Let us consider briefly what are the chances 
for each different kind of hand at poker. 

First, the total number of ways in which a set 
of five cards can be formed out of a pack con- 
taining 52 cards has to be determined. This is 
easy enough. You multiply together 52, 51^ 50, 
49, and 48, and divide the product by that 
obtained from multiplying together 1, 2, 3, 4, and 
5. You thus get 2,598,960 as the total number 
of poker hands. 

It is very easy to determine the number of 
flushes and sequences and flush sequences which 
are possible. 

Thus, begin with the flush sequences. We 
can have in each suit, ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 ; 2, 3, 4, 5, 
6 ; 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ; and so on up to 10, knave, 
queen, king, ace ; or in all there are ten flush 
sequences in each suit, forty flush sequences in 
all. 



122 POKER. 



The iiumTDer of sequences which are not flush 
may be thus determined. The arrangement of 
numbers may be any one of the ten just indi- 
cated. But taking any one of these, as 3, 4, 5, 
G, 7, the three may be of any suit out of the 
four ; so that each arrangement may be obtained 
in four different ways as respects the first card ; 
so with the second, third, etc. ; or in all 4 times 
4 times 4 times 4 times 4, or 1,024, four of which 
only will be flushes. Thus there are 1,020 times 
10, or 10,200 sequences which are not flush. 

Now as respects flushes their number is very 
easily determined. The number of combinations 
of five cards which can be formed out of the 13 
cards of a suit are given by multiplying together 
13, 12, 11, 10, and 9, and dividing by the prod- 
uct of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ; this will be found to be 
1,287. Thus there are 4 times 1,287, or 5,148 
possible flushes. Of these, 5,108 are not sequence 
flushes. 

The total number of '^'^four^^ hands may be 
considered next. The process for finding it is 
very simple. There are of course only 13 fours, 
each of which can be taken with any one of the 
remaining 48 cards ; so that there are 13 times 
48, or 624 possible four hands. 

Next to determine the number of ^^full 
hands. ^' This is not difficult, but requires a 
little more attention. A full hand consists of a 



POKEB. 123 



triplet and a pair. Now manifestly there are 
four triplets of each kind — four sets of three 
aces^ four of three kings, and so forth (for we 
may take each ace from the four aces in succes- 
sion^ leaving in each case a different triplet of 
aces ; and so with the other denominations). 
Thus, in all, 4 times 13, or 52 different triplets 
can be formed out of the pack of 52 cards. 
When one of these triplets has been formed 
there remain 49 cards, out of which the total 
number of sets of two which can be formed 
is obtained by multiplying 49 by 48 and divid- 
ing by 2 ; whence we get 1,176 such combi- 
nations in all. But the total number of pairs 
which can be formed from among these 49 cards 
is much smaller. There are four twos, which 
(as cribbage teaches us) will give six pairs of 
twos ; so there are six pairs of threes, six pairs 
of fours, and so on ; or as there are only twelve 
possible kinds of pairs (after our triplet removed), 
there are in all 6 times 12, that is 72, possible 
pairs which can with the triplet form a full 
hand. Hence, as there are 52 possible triplets, 
the total number of full hands is 52 times 72, or 
3,744. 

The number of triplet hands which are not 
also fours or fulls (for every four hand contains 
triplets) follows at once from the above. There 
are 52 possible triplets, each of which can be 



124 POKER. 



combined with 1^176 combinations of two cards 
out of the remaining 49^ giving in all 52 times 
1,176^ or 61^152 sets of five^ three at least of 
which are alike. But there are 624 four hands, 
each of which is not only a triplet hand^ but will 
manifestly make four of the triplet hands our 
gross reckoning includes (for from every four 
you can make three triplets)^ and there are 3^,744 
full hands. These (to wit^ 4,496 fours, and 
5,744 fulls, or 6,240 hands in all) must be re- 
moyed from our count, leaving 54,912 triplet 
hands (proper) in all. 

This last result might have been obtained 
another way, which (as I shall nse it for count- 
ing pair hands) I may as well indicate here. 
Taking any triplet of the 52, there remain 49 
cards, one of which is of the same denomination 
as the triplet. Eemoving this, there are left 48 
cards, out of which the number of sets of two 
which can be formed is obtained by multipljdng 
48 by 47 and dividing by 2 ; it is, therefore, 1,128, 
and among these 72 are pairs. There remain 
then 1,056 sets of two, any one of which can be 
combined with each of 52 triplets to give a 
triplet hand pure and simple. Thus, in all, 
there are 52 times 1,056 triplet hands, or 54,012, 
as before. 

Next for double and single pairs. 

From the whole pack of 52 cards we can form 



POKER. 125 



6 times 13 pairs ; for 6 aces can be formed, 6 
pairs of twos, 6 pairs of threes, and so forth. 
Thus there are in all 78 different pairs. When 
we have taken out any pair, there remain 50 
cards. From these we must remove the two 
cards of the same denomination, as either or both 
of these must not appear in the hand to be 
formed. There remain 48 cards, from which we 
can form 72 other pairs. Each of these can be 
taken with any one of the 46 remaining cards, 
except with those two which are of the same 
denomination, or with 44 in all, without forming 
a triplet. Each of these combinations can be 
taken with each of the 78 pairs, giving a two- 
pair hand, only it is obvious that each two-pair 
hand will be given twice by this arrangement. 
Thus the total number of two-pair hands is half 
of 78 times 72 times 44, or there are 123,552 
such hands in all. 

ISText as to simple pairs. We get, as before, 
78 different pairs. Each of these can be taken 
with any set of three formed out of the 48 cards 
left when the other 2 of the same denomination 
have been removed, except the 72 times 44 (that 
is 3,168) pairs indicated in dealing with the last 
case, and the 48 triplets which can be formed 
out of these same 48 cards, or 3,216 sets in all. 
Now the total number of sets of three cards 
which can be formed out of 48 is given by multi- 



126 



POKER. 



plying 48 by 47 by 46, and dividing by the prod- 
uct of the numbers 1, 2, and 3. It is found to 
be 17,296. We diminish this by 3,216, getting 
14,082, and find that there are in all 78 times 
14,082 or 1,098,240. 

The hands which remain are those which are 
to be estimated by the highest card in them ; 
and their number will of course be obtained by 
subtracting the sum of the numbers already 
obtained from the total number of possible hands. 
We thus obtain the number 1,302,540, 

Thus of the four best classes of hands, there 
are the following numbers : 



Of flush sequences there 


* may 


be . 


40 


^^ four 


634 


'' full hands 






3,744 


^^ common flushes 






5,108 


^^ common sequences 






10,200. 


'^ triplets . 






54,912 


'' two pairs » 






123,552 


'^ pairs 






1,098,340 


^^ other hands 






1,303,540 


Total number of possible hands 

T 1 '11 1 1 t 1 11 IT 


■ ^ 3,598,960 

1 J 1 1 



It will be seen that those who devised the rules 
for poker play set the different hands in very 
proper order. It is fitting, for instance, that as 



POKER. 127 



there are only 40 possible flush sequence hands 
out of a total number of 2^598^960 hands^ while 
there are 624 ^^four^^ hands^ the flush sequences 
should come first, and so with the rest. It is 
noteworthy, however, that when sequences were 
not counted, as was the rule in former times, 
there was one hand absolutely unique and un- 
conquerable. The holder of four aces then 
wagered on a certainty, for no one else could 
hold that hand. At present there is no abso- 
lutely sure winning hand. The hold of ace, king, 
queen, knave, ten, flush may (though it is of 
course exceedingly unlikely) be met by the holder 
of the same cards, flush, in another suit. Or when 
we remember that at whist it lias happened that 
the deal divided the four suits among the four 
players, to each a complete suit, we see that 
four players at poker might each receive a flush 
sequence headed by the ace. Thus the use of 
sequences has saved poker players from the pos- 
sible risk of having either to stand out or wager 
on a certainty, which last would of course be very 
painful to the feelings of a professional gambler. 
We might subdivide the hands above classified 
into a much longer array, beginning thus : 4 
flush sequences headed by ace ; 4 headed by 
king, and so on down to 4 headed by five ; 48 
possible four-aces hands ; 48 four-kings hands ; 
and so on down to 48 four-twos hands ; 24 possi- 



128 POKER. 



ble '' fulls ^' of 3 aces and 2 kings; as many 
of 3 aces and 2 queens ; and so on down to 24 
^^ fulls ^^ of 3 twos and 2 threes^ and so on. 
Any one who cares to do this can, by drawing the 
line at any hand, ascertain at once the number 
of hands above and not above that hand in 
value!; and thus determine the chance that any 
hand taken at random is above or below that 
particular hand in value. The comparatively 
simple table above only sliows how many hands 
there are above or not above pairs, triplets, and 
the like. But the more complete series could 
be very easily formed. 

We note from the above table that more than 
half the possible poker hands are below pairs in 
value. So that Clay was right enough in wagering 
on an ace-high hand, seeing that there are more 
hands which will not beat it (supposing the high- 
est next card a king, at any rate) than there are 
hands that will ; but he was quite wrong in calling 
on such a hand, even against a single opponent. 

The effect of increase in the number of hands 
can also readily be determined. Many, even 
among gamblers, know so little of the doctrine 
of chances as not to be aware of, still less to be 
able to measure the effect of, the presence of a 
great number of other contestants. Yet it is 
easy to illustrate the matter. 

Thus^ suppose a player casts a die single 



POKER. 129 



against one other. If the first has cast four, the 
odds are in favor of his not being beaten ; for 
there are only two casts which ivill beat him 
and four which will not. The chance that he 
will not be beaten by a single opponent is thus 
f or f. If there is another opponent, the 
chance that he individually will not cast better 
than 4 is also f . But the chance that neither 
will throw better than 4 is obtained by multiply- 
ing I by |, It is therefore f ; or the odds 
are 5 to 4 in favor of one or other beating the 
cast of the first thrower. If there are three 
others, in like manner the chance that not one 
of the three will throw better than 4 is obtained 
by multiplying f by | by f . It is, therefore, 
2^ ; or the odds are 19 to 8 in favor of 
the first thrower's cast of four being beaten. 
And so with every increase in the number of 
other throwers, the chance of the first thrower's 
cast being beaten is increased. So that if the 
first thrower casts 4, and is offered his share of 
the stakes before the next throw is made, the 
offer is a bad one if there is* but one opponent, a 
good one if there are two, and a very good one 
if there are more than two. 

In like manner, the same hand which it would 
be safe to stand on (as a rule) at poker against 
two or three opponents may be a very unsafe hand 
to stand on against five or six. 



130 POKER. 



Then the player has to consider the pretty 
chance-problems involved in drawing. 

Suppose^ for instance^ your original hand con- 
tains a pair — the other three cards being all 
unlike ; should you stand out ? or should you 
draw ? (to purchase right to which you must 
stand in) ; or should you stand in without draw- 
ing? Again^ if you draw^, how many of the 
three loose cards should you throw out ? and 
what are your chances of improving your hand ? 

Here you have to consider first whether you 
will stand in^ which depends not on the value of 
your pair only, but also on the chance that your 
hand will be improved by drawing. Having 
decided to stand in^ remember that discarding 
three tells the rest of the company that in all 
probability you are drawing to improve a pair 
hand ; and at poker^ telling anything helps the 
enemy. If one of your loose cards is an ace^ 
you do well to discard only the other two ; for this 
looks like drawing to a triplet, and you may 
chance to draw a pair to your ace. But usually 
you have so much better chance of improving 
your hand by drawing three, that it is, as a rule, 
better to do this. 

Drawing to a triplet is usually good policy. 
^' Your mathematical expectation of improve- 
ment is slight, ^^ says one work on the subject, 
^^ being 1 to 33 of a fourth card '' (it should be 



POKER. 131 

the fourth card) '^ of the same denomination^ and 
3 to 23 of another pair of denomination different 
from the triplet/^ a remark suggesting the com- 
ment that to obtain a pair of the same denomina- 
tion as the triplet would require play something 
like what we hear of in old Mississippi stories^ 
where a '^'^ straight flush ^^ would be met by a 
very full pair of hands^ to wit^ five in one hand 
and a revolver in the other ! The total expecta- 
tion of improvement is 1 to 8 ; but then see 
what an impression you make by a draw which 
means a good hand. Then^ too^ you may sug- 
gest a yet better hand^ without much impairing 
your chance of improvement^ by drawing one 
card only. This gives you one chance in 47 of 
making fours^ and one in 16 of picking up one 
of the three cards of the same denomination as 
the odd cards you retain. This is a chance of 
one in 12. 

'' Draws to straights and flushes are usually 
dearly purchased/'' says our oracle ; ^^ always so 
at a small table. Their value increases directly 
as the number of players. ^^ (The word ^'^ directly ^^ 
is here incorrectly used ; the value increases as 
the number of players^ but not directly as the 
number.) Of course in drawing to a two-ended 
straight — that is, one which does not begin or end 
with an ace — the chance of success is represented 
by 8 in 47, for there are 47 cards outside your 



133 POKER. 



original hand^ of which only eight are good to 
complete the straight. For a one-end straight 
the chance is but 4 in 47. With a small chance^ 
too, of improving your hand, you are trying for 
a hand better than you want in any but a large 
company. '^^If^you play in a large joarty/^ says 
one authority, ^^say seven or eight, and find 
occasion to draw for a straight against six 
players, do so by all means, even if you split 
a^es.^^ The advice is sound. Under the cir- 
cumstances you need a better hand than ace- 
pair to give you your fair sixth share of the 
chances. 

As to flushes your chances are better, when 
you have already four of a suit. You discard 
one, and out of the remaining 47 cards any one 
of nine will make your flush for you. Your 
chance is 1 in 5|. In dealing with this point 
our oracle goes altogether wrong, and adopts a 
principle so inconsistent with the doctrine of 
probabilities as to show that, though he knows 
much more than Steinmetz, he still labors under 
somewhat similar illusions. ^'^ Theoretically,^^ 
says he, ^^the result just obtained is absolutely 
true ; but I have experimented with six hands 
through a succession of 500 deals, and filled 
only 83 flushes in the 500, equal to one in six 
and one-twentieth draws. Of course I am not 
prepared to say that this would be the average 



POKER. 133 



in many thousand deals ; theoretically it is an 
untrue result ; but I here suggest a possible ex- 
planation of what I confess is to me a mystery/^ 
Then he expounds the very matter on which we 
touched aboYC. '' In casting dice/'' he says^ 
'' theoretically , any given throw has no influence 
upon the next throw, and is not influenced by 
the previous throw. Yet if you throw a die and 
it turns up six, while the chances are theoreti- 
cally one to six ^' (one in six it should be) '^ that 
the next throw will produce a six because the 
previous throw of six lies absolutely in the past, 
yet you may safely bet something more than the 
usual odds against it. Then suppose the second 
throw turns up a six, that throw also now lies in 
the past, and cannot be proved to have an influ- 
ence upon throw number three, which you are 
preparing to make. If any material influence 
is suspected, you may change the box and die ; 
and you may now bet twice the usual odds 
against the six. Why ? Because you know by 
experience that it is extremely difficult to throw 
six three times in succession, even if you do not 
know the precise odds against it. Granted, cer- 
tain odds against throwing six twice in succes- 
sion, etc., yet at any given moment when the 
player shakes the box in which is a six-faced 
die, he has one chance in six of throwing a six ; 
and yet if he has just thrown sixes twice, you 



134 POKER. 



may bet twelve to one that he will not throw a 
six in that particular cast/^ If I did not hold 
gambling to be near akin to swindling, and 
could find but a few hundred who held this doc- 
trine, how much money might I not gain by ac- 
cepting any number of wagers of this wise sort ! 

The fact is, the mistake here is just the ridicu- 
lous mistake which Steinmetz called ^'^the 
maturity of the chances '^ over again. It is a 
mistake which has misled to their ruin many 
thousands of gamblers, who might have escaped 
the evil influence of that other equally foolish 
mistake about being lucky or unlucky, in the 
vein or out of it. Steinmetz j)uts the matter 
thus : ^"^ In a game of chance, the oftener the 
same combination has occurred in succession, 
the nearer are we to the certainty that it will 
not recur at the next cast or turn-up : this is the 
most elementary of the theories on probabili- 
ties ; it is termed the maturity of the chances.^'' 
The real fact being that this is not a theory of 
probabilities at all, but disproved by the theory 
of probabilities, and disproved, whenever it has 
been put to the test, by facts. 

Take the case considered in ^' The Complete 
Poker Player, ^^ and note the evidence on the 
strength of which the author of that work re- 
jects the theory in favor of a practical common- 
sense notion (as he thinks), which is, in reality, 



POKEE. 135 



nonsense. You may expect 9 snccessful draws 
to a flush in 47 hands ; therefore in the 500 deals 
he experimented upon, he might have expected 
95 or 96 ; and he only obtained 83. Now 500 
trials are far too few to test such a matter as 
this. You can hardly test eyen the tossing of a 
coin properly by fewer than a thousand trials ; 
and in that case there are but 2 possible events. 
Here there are 47, of which 9 are fayorable. It 
is the failure to recognize this which led the 
Astronomer Royal for Scotland to recognize 
something mystical and significant in the pre- 
ponderance of threes and the deficiency of sevens 
among the digits rej)resenting the proportion of 
the circumference to the diameter of a circle. 
In casting a coin a great number of times we 
do not find that the occurrence of a great number 
of successive heads or tails in any way affects 
the average proportion of heads or tails coming 
next after the series. Thus I have before me 
the record of a series of 16^317 tossings^ in which 
the number of sequences of tails (only) were 
rendered; and I find that after 271 cases^ in 
which tails had been tossed 5 times in succes- 
sion^ the next tossing gave in 132 cases heads^ 
and in 139 cases tails. Among the 16,317 toss- 
ings^ two cases occurred in which tail was tossed 
15 times in succession, which, as it happens, is 
more than theory would regard as probable. 



136 POKEE. 

Here, however, I must draw these notes to a 
close. I have been already led on farther than 
I had intended to go. I shall note only one 
other of the doctrines (mostly sound enough 
theoretically) laid down in '^'^The Complete 
Poker Player. ^^ '^^ Players sometimes/^ he says, 
^^ act on the strange principle that if they are 
in bad luck it is well to try the bold experi- 
ments usually regarded as bad play — as two 
negatives in algebra make a positive, so they 
think that bad play and bad luck united will 
win/^ On this our author makes the significant 
comment, ^' a slight degree of intoxication aids 
to perfect this intellectual deduction.^^ Poker 
playing generally, as a process for making money 
more quickly, is much improved and enlivened 
by a slight degree of intoxication. 

STRAIGHT POKER. 

" Take it up straighV 

Winter's Tah. Act II., Scene Zd. 

The fifty-two cards are used, and the rule of 
the game the same as in ordinary poker, with 
these exceptions. Deal passes to the person 
winning. Before playing everybody puts up a 
chip. You can pass and come in again at your 
pleasure. The original cards are what you play 
with, and you do not draw. When nobody 



POKEE. 137 



enters^ the player to the left of the dealer makes 
a new round of cards. Bucks are often used for 
convenience^ the elder hand putting in as many 
chips as there are players. 

STUD POKER. 

" ShalPs have a play of this f " 

Cymbeline. Act F., Scene 5th. 

In dealing, five cards are given, as in poker. 
The first card is placed face down, the others 
with their faces up. Then a card or cards are 
drawn, which are not exposed. The raising 
and all else is as in usual poker. 

WHISKY POKER. 

" I cannot doH without countersy 

Winter's Tale, Act IV., Scene 2d, 

This game begins by each player putting a 
chip in the pool. Hands as in poker are dealt, 
with one extra hand, placed face downward on 
the table. This hand is called the widow. The 
elder hand has the choice of passing, or taking 
the five cards of the widow. If he passes, the 
hand after him has the privilege. If the widow 
is taken, the player puts face up on the table 
the hand he has originally held, and from this, 
in rotation, the other hands take a card or the 
cards they want, replacing in the widow the cards 
they have taken from their own hands. When 



138 POKER. 



one player is satisfied with his hand^ he inti- 
mates that he will close the game. Those after 
him and up to him are still entitled to take or 
exchange cards^ until his place is reached. Then 
.there is a show of hands^ but no betting. The 
best hand wins. If the first player has a good 
hand, and decides to close the game, the widow 
may still be used or exchanged with the widow 
made as before described. 

MISTIGRIS. 

*' There lies a cooling card^ 

Henry VI., Part I. Act F., Scene 3d. 

The joker is used. The joker makes fifty- 
three cards in the pack. The mistigris, in a 
player^s hand, entitles him to increase the value 
of his hand. If he has a pair, holding the 
mistigris makes them threes. With threes, the 
mistigris makes them fours. With two pairs, it 
converts the hand into a full. It has all latitude, 
makes straights, flushes, etc., etc. Sometimes 
its power is diminished of course by agreement, 
as in a full, increasing only the lower pair. All 
else is as in regular poker. 

TIGER. 

" The Hyrcan tiger.'''' 

Macbeth. Act TIL, Scene hth. 

This is a dreadful innovation, but as it is 
occasionally played we give it a place in this 



POKEK. 139 



volume. The tiger in a hand of poker is the 
very lowest combination of cards which can be 
held. Five cards beginning with a seven and 
ending with a deuce is a tiger. Thus seven^ six^ 
five, four, and deuce, and nothing else, is a 
tiger. There must be no pair in it. It can be 
drawn for. It is supposed to be better than a 
straight, and not as good as a flush. A tiger 
then beats threes. 



ANECDOTES ON POKER. 



ANECDOTES ON POKER. 



SENATORIAL POKER STORIES. 

" /n winter'' s tedious nights, sit by the fire 
With good old folks ; and let them tell thee tales.''' 

Richard 11. Act V., Scene 1st. 

There was a famous little poker club made 
up of Senators of the United States, which met 
several times a week in gorgeously furnished 
private rooms at the hostelry of my friend John 
Chamberlin the gastronome, in Washington. 
At a seance in that convivial and charming com- 
pany I heard these anecdotes. 

A TERRIBLE BLUFF. 

^^A famous Chicago player named Dr. Powell 
was sitting in a game with Senator Tom Bowen 
of Colorado. One of the party said Senator 
Bowen was a terrible bluffer, and thought no 
more of losing $100,000 than the ordinary man 
would $100. In those days a bluff meant a good 
deal, too. Men used to go down into their pock- 
ets^ and if you couldn^t cover the money on the 



144 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 

table the other fellow took the stuff. We had 
made a jack-pot^ and there was $2000 on the 
table. Bowen had two pairs, jacks up, and he 
passed. That was a trick of his. Powell had a 
pair of kings, and he opened the pot for $50. I 
had three sixes, and I stood the $50 and made it 
$100 better. The other people dropped out until 
it came to Bowen, who raised it $500, making 
it cost $650 to draw cards. Powell and I just 
stayed, Bowen stood pat. Dr. Powell drew three, 
and I drew two. Powell caught a pair of fives 
to his kings and I captured my fourth six. Say, 
may be I wasn^t shaking, for I knew Bowen was 
in for a big blufip. Powell seemed afraid and 
silently laid in $20. I raised him $500 and 
Bowen went $1000 better than me. Dr. Powell 
took out his check-book and said : ' I suppose 
you will not object to my check ? ^ 

^^ We murmured ^ no/ and he called the $1500. 
I then got out my check-book and raised it $1000. 

^' Bowen quietly said : ^ If I thought you had 
lots of money I would raise this pot enough to 
make it interesting. As it is, 1^11 just tilt her 
$5000.' 

^^ Powell laid down his cards w^ithout a word. 
It took me ten minutes to decide whether to 
call or raise ; but I was afraid if I raised he 
would jump onto me for more than I could pro- 
duce and thus capture the pot. So I said, ^ I'll 



AIS'ECDOTES 0>^ POKER. 145 

call that/ Bo wen calmly threw his hand into 
the deck, and I left town loaded down with 
money /^ 

THE ONE-EYED STRANGER. 

The best of these Senatorial poker stories^ 
however, is this, which I heard from Senator 
Jones of Nevada : '^ One night at the leading 
saloon of a little town in my State a party of half 
a dozen were playing poker. Among the .play- 
ers was a very nice young fellow, a graduate of 
Yale College, and a man who had been quite 
successful at mining, and had at the same time 
made himself popular with his fellows. Another 
member of the party was a one-eyed stranger, 
and the rest was made up of other honest miners 
about the camp. The play went on from early 
in the evening until about midnight, and all this 
time the one-eyed man seemed to get all the 
good hands. Several times the college graduate 
thought he saw that the man was cheating, but 
he did not appear to notice it. At midnight the 
college graduate rose up and quietly said : "^ Gen- 
tlemen, we are all tired playing, and some of us 
are about broke. I propose now that we take a 
recess and have some oysters and champagne. 
After we are through we will throw away these 
cards, get a new deck, and see if our luck don^t 
change. We will set out to play a square game, 



146 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 

and ' (here he looked hard at the one-eyed stran- 
ger^ as he put his hand at his revolver at his 
belt) ^ the first man we catch cheating we will 
shoot out his other eye/ Well^ the motion was 
carried^ the oysters were eaten, and the luck did 
change. The one-eyed man lost every cent of 
his winnings, and as daylight broke through the 
dirty panes of the saloon windows he arose, de- 
claring himself dead broke. 



}} 



"LET HER BURN; THE POT IS MINE." 

Years ago Senator Vest, when a young man, 
occasionally indulged in the fascinating game 
called draw poker, a game which we know is 
thoroughly understood in all its details in Clinton 
County, more especially Lathrop. Well, once 
on a time Vest had tried a case in a little county 
seat and received a large fee for clearing his man. 
So much money in the hands of the young law- 
yer was as tempting to the denizens as a cool 
watermelon to a hungry nigger. The result was 
a game of poker was gotten up. The boys in- 
tended to fleece Vest, and of course stocked the 
cards. They had no place to play in but a little 
shed that had no floor but some fresh dry wheat 
straw. It was a five-handed game, and a dry- 
goods box served as a table. It happened to be a 
jack-pot, and Vest opened it on three queens. 



ANECDOTES 0]^ POKER. 147 

The cards being fixed^ the other fellows had 
better hands and of course raised before the draw. 
Vest stood the raise and drew two cards. As 
luck would have it he got the other queen. 
The betting commenced and grew exceedingly 
warm. They would raise the young lawyer and 
he would see them and go a little better. An 
outsider, who stood in with the gang, looked 
over Vestas shoulder and saw what a formidable 
hand he had. He held up four fingers, shook his 
head, and in other ways tried to warn his friends. 
But to no purpose. He saw that Vest would 
break the crowd, so he lit a match and set the 
straw floor on fire and told them to run for dear 
life. That cool head which serves him so well 
now in the great debates of the Senate, and which 
never lets him become rattled, did not desert him 
then. With one hand he raked in the boodle, 
with the other he exhibited his lovely queens, and 
as he went out of the door with his coat-tail on 
fire, he said : ^^ Let her burn ; the pot is mine.^^ 
An hour or two afterward he sat in the hotel 
surrounded by a crowd of friends. He told them 
that the manner in which they weighed hogs 
in Arkansas was to tie two boxes on the ends of 
a pole and balance it across a rail fence. The 
hog was placed in one box and the other one 
was filled with rocks until they balanced. The 
weight of the hog was ascertained by guessing 



148 ANECDOTES O^ POKER. 

at the weight of the rocks. Vest then lazily 
closed his near eye and slowly elevated the brow 
of the off one^ a comical facial expression so 
peculiar to himself^, and remarked that he was 
of the opinion that some people in that town 
knew as little about playing poker as the people 
of Arkansas did about weighing hogs. The 
crowd all laughed but the shed-burners^ and they 
put on a sickly grin and went out and smiled. 

"THAT TYPEWRITER." 

Not very long ago Senator^ then Mr. Petti- 
grew, was staying at a small town in Dakota, 
where he knew two or three men whose piles were 
nearly as big as his own. Some one suggested a 
quiet game of draw. There being nothing else to 
do Pettigrew was willing, and they adjourned to 
a private room in the hotel, where a pretty stiff 
game was soon in progress. After playing some 
time a jack-pot became rather fat. Pettigrew 
hesitated at first, but concluded to come in, and 
drew four cards. 

The man who opened the pot bet $50, and 
Pettigrew raised the same amount. The third 
player dropped out, as the man who opened had 
not drawn any cards. It being then the turn 
of the opener, he raised another $50, which 
Pettigrew doubled. This sort of thing went on 



ANECDOTES OX POKER. 149 

for some little time, until the fellow who opened 
the pot began to get uneasy. 

''How many cards did you draw, Pettigrew ? "" 
he asked. 

'^Pour/^ was the laconic response. 

^' Well, you are betting pretty lively on a four- 
card draw.'* 

Pettigrew said nothing, but suggested that 
they raise the limit to $100. The other fellow 
began to get nervous, but thought his opponent 
could not possibly have a better hand than his 
own, and raised another $50. Pettigrew came 
right back at him without a smile, and the other 
fellow in desperation called. Pettigrew laid 
down his hand — ace, king, queen^ j^ck, and ten- 
spot of clubs. 

'' Great Scott ! '' was the chorus. 

^' Guess that's my pot," said Pettigrew. 

^' What in thunder did you draw to ?"' asked 
his companion. 

'' That typewriter,'' said Pettigrew, indicat- 
ing the modest little queen of clubs. The re- 
marks of the players were very lurid as Petti- 
grew smiled blandly and shuffled the cards. 

'' What did you open it on ? " asked he at last. 

^' Three kings and a pair of aces, though I 
don't know that it is any of your business." 

That broke up the game. The Senatorial 
players here heard this story of Pettigrew's luck 



150 ANECDOTES OK POKER. 

and are fighting shy of him. They are pretty 
good poker players themselves, but they are so 
much afraid of the Dakota man's proverbial luck 
that he has not yet been invited into a game. 
He is watching his chance, however, and sooner 
or later will get into the statesmen's game. 



PLAYING FOR GREAT STAKES. 

A SQUAW. 

Jerking BilFs large pile of blue chips had 
dwindled down to the bare possibility of an 
ante on the evening following a mountain-sheep 
hunt, when, it being that gentleman's deal, he 
suggested a freeze-out. The others assented, 
and in less than an hour every chip on the 
table had gravitated into the pile in front of 
the famous broncho-jaw breaker. Doc looked 
rather blue over his losses, and a veteran cow- 
puncher called '^ Parson Jack,'' on account of 
his unexampled capacity for the most lurid style 
of profanity, swore till he was black in the face. 
Fortunately, it was not until he had cooled down 
that he noticed that Jerking Bill still wore his 
^^ chaps." 

'' What ye got them chaps on fer. Bill ? " he 
demanded, suspiciously. '' Come, Doc, le's shake 
him out of 'em." 



ANECDOTES OK POKER. 151 

Jerking Bill's six-shooter came out with its 
old-time fluency. 

^^No ye don%^^ he said^ with a grin ; ^^but^ 
seein^ it was a friendly game^ you can have your 
money back/^ and he cheerfully divided his 
winnings prorata among the players. Then he 
took oflf his huge cowhide leggins^ and with them 
fell to the floor as elegant an assortment of aces^ 
kings^ queens, and jacks as one would wish to 
see. 

^^That^s why I wore my chaps/^ said Bill; 
^^ and that reminds me of a little game I was 
steered against one time up on the Chugwater.'^ 

'^^The stakes in this game/^ began Jerking 
Bill, ^^was the handsomest young squaw in the 
country. It was in '63, when ranching was 
pretty ticklish business unless you stood in with 
the Indians. The quickest and surest way to do 
this was to marry into the tribe. In this way 
you were sure to be eaten half out of house and 
home by several hundred of your wife's relations, 
but your scalp was safe and the redskins wouldn't 
drive your stock off. As a general thing a Pi-Ute 
squaw ain't noted for her beauty, and in the fall 
of ^63 the stock had melted away before the de- 
mand until v/hat was left was about the scraggi- 
est lot you can imagine. All but See-Face-in-the- 
Water ; she was young and a very good-looking 
squaw, as squaws go. She wouldn't create 



152 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 

much excitement hereabout now^ but to us poor 
fellows who hadn^t seen a white Avoman for three 
or four years she was a ravishing beauty. 

'^ See-Face-in-the-Water^s father was a tough 
old buck, who wasn^t such a fool that he didn^t 
realize the fact that his daughter comprised the 
bulk of his assets. Every unmarried ranchman 
in the country was after the girl, but the old 
buck, who went by the name of Eat-Thunder, 
would listen to no proposals except those made 
by Poker Jack, Seven-Up Andy, and your hum- 
ble servant. We all had large ranches and good- 
sized herds, and Eat-Thunder sized us up as 
about the style of son-in-law he was pinin^ for. 
Our ranches joined, and the old chap wanted us 
to organize a stock company and marry the girl 
on shares. We couldn^t agree to this, so Jack 
suggested a game of poker, See-Face-in-the- 
Water to be the stakes. Each of us was to take 
$10 worth of chips, and the game was to last 
until one of us had cleaned out the other two, 
the winner to have the squaw. 

'^ The game took place at Jack^s cabin. See- 
Face-in-the-Water sat on a pile of buffalo robes 
in a corner, and about thirty bucks (we^d taught 
the whole gang the game) looked on very much 
excited. To make sure that Poker Jack didn^t 
ring in any of his under-the-table business on us, 
Andy and I proposed that a buffalo robe turned 



ANECDOTES ON^ POKER. 153 

bottom up on the floor should be the table^ and 
that the three players should sit on three corners 
while Eat-Thunder sat on the other to see fair 
play. Jack had been riding on the range all 
day and still wore his chaps. We told him he^d 
better take ^em off^ but he said as he'd got sev- 
eral miles to ride it wouldn't pay to take 'em off 
for the few minutes it would take him to corral 
the game ; so we didn't say anything more^ but 
got to work. 

^^For more than an hour the game kept al- 
most even^ and then Jack began to pull ahead. 
Once started, it took about fifteen minutes to 
clean me out and make a very large hole in 
Andy's pile. About this stage of the game 
Andy caught three deuces, and did some very 
heavy bluffingo Poker Jack held a full hand. 
The excitement became intense. Eat-Thunder, 
who sat next Jack, had so far been a strictly 
impartial witness of the game. JSTow he was 
strangely agitated, and leaned over on his elbow 
partly behind Jack, and seemed to be feeling in 
his belt. Andy put up his last chip. Jack saw 
him, and was about to rake in the pot, when 
Eat-Thunder caught him by the wrist with his 
left hand and with his hunting-knife in his right 
ripped Jack's chaps open clear to the knee." 

Here Jerking Bill paused, heaved a sigh, and 
silently rolled a cigarette. 



154 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 

" What did Eat-Thunder find ? '' some one in- 
quired, Bill seeming to have forgotten that his 
story was unfinished. 

^^ About the same layout I had a little while 
ago. Poker Jack^s chaps down half-way to his 
knees were lined with flushes, straights, and full 
hands, with now and then a small pair for the 
sake of variety. Poor Jack ! He was a genius 
and deserved a better fate ! '^ 

" Why, what happened to him ?^^ 

^'^A very fatal kind of an accident. Eat- 
Thunder, enraged at the sight of such wholesale 
cheating upon so solemn an occasion, made just 
one more pass with his knife and poor Jack^s 
head rolled over into the lap of the Indian maid 
he had so nearly won. Then Eat-Thunder got 
up and made a speech. He warned all |)i'esent 
to profit by the example before them and never 
commit the heinous otfense of cheating at poker, 
an offense which, if it became general, would 
undermine the bulwarks of society and yield the 
bitter fruit of disunion, anarchy, and rebellion. 
In order to make the lesson still more impressive, 
Eat-Thunder subsequently drove Andy and me 
out of the territory and confiscated our property.^^ 

Jerking Bill was so overcome by the memories 
his story had revived that he said not another 
word, but presently sought the seclusion of his 
blankets. 



ANECDOTES 0:N" POKER. 155 

CAPTAIN BILLY CONNER'S STORY. 

Captain Billy Conner told me this story : 
^^A magnificent Mississippi Eiver steamer was 
on her way to New Orleans with a cabin full of 
passengers going to Mardi Gras. The usual 
brass band that played stirring airs at each town 
landing was aboard. In the cabin were passen- 
gers from all points along the river, and some 
from distant cities. Of course there was j^oker 
playing in the social hall in the gentlemen's 
cabin, which was in the front part of the steamer. 

^^ When the boat landed at Natchez a big game 
was in full blast. A stranger, tall, handsome, 
and well dressed, came aboard. He had an hon- 
est, open countenance, and won confidence the 
minute any one looked at him. After he had 
registered at the clerk's desk and been assigned 
to a stateroom, he lit a cigar and slowly saun- 
tered around. When he came to the table where 
the big game of poker was being played, he sat 
down behind one of the players. Now, it hap- 
pened that the man he sat behind was not a 
professional gambler, but his opponent across the 
table was a blackleg of the most expert and cun- 
ning kind. The non-professional, though, had 
plenty of money and bet freely. The handsome 
stranger sat quietly behind the non-professional 
and gave pointers to the gambler opposite. He 



156 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 

did it in sucli a quick and telegraphic way that 
no one saw or even suspected him. The gam- 
bler^ though, saw and understood his signs thor- 
oughly. Finally the non-professional player 
began to lose. If he had a good hand the gam- 
bler would either pass out or bet and win. The 
stakes were raised and several thousand dollars 
were on the table in one pot. After the non- 
professional had dealt the cards he picked up his 
hand and found four hearts and a club. The 
antes and raises Avere too high to go out, and so 
he drew one card to a flush and the gambler drew 
four cards to a king high. The latter didn^'t 
catch a pair and the flush was not made. In an 
instant the tall stranger communicated the fact 
to the gambler that his opponent had a bobtail 
flush and only queen high. Betting began in a 
bluffy kind of way by the gambler putting up a 
cool $1000. The non-professional saw it and 
went $2000 better. They kept raising each 
other until $10,000 was up, when the gambler 
was called. He took in the money with a king 
high, and the game came to an end. 

'' The next morning the tall, handsome stran- 
ger was strolling on the hurricane deck, when he 
was met by the gambler, who requested the pleas- 
ure of meeting him alone in his (the gambler^s) 
stateroom. When they arrived there the gam- 
bler carefully bolted the door and said : ' Now, 



ANECDOTES OK POKER. 157 

pard, I wish to divide with you. Here are 
$5000, half of our winnings.' The tail stran- 
ger drew back indignantly and replied : ^ I do 
not understand you. What do you owe me 
$5000 for ? ^ Then the gambler explained that 
he always divided with other professionals who 
gave away the hands of gentlemen at the card 
table. Without being embarrassed in the least, 
the stranger said: ^I just gave you pointers 
because I happened to sit behind that man. If I 
had been behind you I would have given your 
hand away to the other fellow. That is the 
way I do ; I don't want any money. "" With 
that remark he walked out of the stateroom. 
I defy any one to match a phase of character 
similar to that of the handsome stranger. He 
got off at New Orleans, and lives in New 
York to-day.'^ 



HERRMANN'S POKER STORY. 

I heard Herrmann, the magician, tell this 
story once : ^^ I remember one night, not a thou- 
sand years ago, that, in order to amuse a few 
friends, I sat down to a quiet little game of poker. 
You see, it was this way : I met the friends, and 
was introduced to an innocent-looking youth of 
the dude persuasion, whose face was as vacant 
in expression as a pound of putty. This youth 



158 ANECDOTES ON" POKER. 

had been bragging of bis powers as a poker 
player, and had made the others so tired that 
they whispered me to take the conceit out of him 
for the fun there w^as in it. I was ready, and 
we sat down.^^ 

''In Philadelphia?'' 

'' Bless you, no. They don't play poker in 

Philadelphia. This was in . Well, when 

we began the game I allowed the youngster to 
win in order to get him interested, and, the 
better to enjoy the circus, the others dropped 
out and my victim and I had the table to our- 
selves. Of course, I was to give him back 
whatever I won from him — that was understood. 
We didn't play with chips, as we had none, but 
made the game a quarter ante and a dollar limit, 
so that we could use the money without making 
any awkward change. Every time my callow 
friend won a pot he put the silver and bills in his 
pocket and would chip in the stuff as he needed 
it. After he had won a respectable pile I began 
to get my work in, and by handling and dealing 
the cards in my own peculiar way I soon had his 
pile in a fair way to innocuous desuetude. Oc- 
casionally I would let him win, just to keep the 
fun up, and I don't know but what I enjoyed 
my opponent's innocence as much as did my 
friends. But all things must have an end. 
Finally I cleaned him out^ much to his surprise, 



ANECDOTES ON POKER. 159 

and ordered a bottle. My friends couldn^t keep 
it in any longer. 

'^^I say^ old man/ said one^ 'do you know 
who youVe been playin^ with?^ 

'^'Yes/ replied my yictim calmly; 'Herr- 
mann^ the magician^ and he^s a good player.^ 

'' This was somewhat of a surprise all round. 
But I laughed and handed him back the money 
I had won. He wouldn^t take it. Iso, sir. 
Said I had won it ; had he won mine he would 
have kept it^ and under no consideration w^ould 
he take it back. That was not his way of play- 
ing poker. It was no use for me to protest, to 
tell him that I had deliberately robbed him. He 
was sorry that he had got in with a man who 
didn^t play a square game, but that it was his 
lookout. He ought to have seen that he was 
being fleeced, but as he had been fleeced and 
with his eyes open, too, he was not the man to 
squeal. I tell you, I felt mean. I didn^t think 
it half so funny then as I did before. But all I 
could do or say made no impression on my vic- 
tim, and with a dignified bow he left us. 

^''AU I can do,^ I said to one of my friends, 
^will be to give this money to some charitable 
institution.^ 

'' Then I gave the waiter one of the bills I had 
won to pay for the wine. He came back with 
it, and the information that it was a counterfeit. 



160 a:n"ecdotes on poker. 

Yes^ sir. That guileless youth had won my 
good money and rung in over a hundred dollars^ 
worth of paper on me that wasn^t worth a cent 
a pound. Fm pretty good on handling cards, 
but poker is a mighty uncertain game — mighty 
uncertain.^^ 

WrNNING A WIFE. 

I heard this anecdote of Sylvester Shively, 
who died of apoplexy at Scranton, Pennsylvania, 
not long ago. He was born in Wilkesbarre fifty 
years ago and was a college-bred man. It is 
thought by old gamblers in New York that 
he has left nearly $500,000. He won his wife 
by a game of poker on the Mississippi in the 
summer of 1860. It was on the Eiver Queen, 
and the game had been going on for some time, 
and the stakes ran into the thousands, for there 
was no limit in those days. One of the players, 
after dropping his last dollar, drew his chair 
back from the table, and going to the side of 
the boat whipped out his deringer and put it to 
his head. But he was not quick enough, for 
Shively had him in his grasp before he could 
fire, and he led the man into the cabin. There 
the stranger introduced Shively to his daughter, 
a beautiful girl of twenty. They say it was love 
at first sight. Shively restored the man^s fortune 
he had won, married the daughter, and promised 



ANECDOTES O:^ POKER. 161 

to give lip gambling forever. He settled down 
in Scranton and was living like a gentleman 
when he was called to Harrisburg on business 
during a session of the Legislature. He sat into 
a game there and won $26^000. Shively was a 
member of the famous '^Buckt ail/' a Pennsyl- 
vania regiment that enlisted in 1861. 

A SHARPER'S DICTA. 

I once heard of a poker sharp laying down 
the following rules : 

^* When you are a considerable winner in the 
game^ keep continually looking at your watch, 
if you have any ; if not, keep asking what time 
it is, stating that your wife is dying, or anything 
that will produce the impression that you must 
go after that hand. After you have said that 
fifteen or twenty times in half as many minutes, 
if some one of the players don't beg of you to 
get out of the game, then get up and apologize 
for ever having a wife, etc. N. B. — This rule 
need not be followed when you are a consider- 
able loser. 

^^ If you are a big, strong man, be a poker 
player by all means ; because, in case you are 
beaten by a smaller and more intellectual gen- 
tleman, you can bully him and lie him out of 
the pool, or threaten to whip him, and grab the 
pot. 



162 A^^ECDOTES ON POKER. 

'' Never ante up till some one tells you to, 
and then say that you have, and stick to it, 
which will generally persuade some one else to 
' come in ^ twice. This rule, though an excel- 
lent one, must be followed with discretion. 

^^ Toward the end of the evening it is always 
better to ^ owe ^ up your ante ^ for a minute^ 
than to ^ put ^ up, as the winner of the pot fre- 
quently forgets to charge up the debt, and none 
of the other players will remind him, as they 
may wish to do the same thing/^ 



POKER McCOOL, 

There was once a famous Mississippi Eiver 
man named Poker McCool. ^^ He was what we 
called in those days a ''high roller^ — that is, 
he would not only play for heavy stakes, but 
would have gambled the last of his possessions, 
even had it been a block of brick buildings, 
on what he thought would be the top hand. 
Where McOool came from to the river, as well 
as whither he went upon leaving it, nobody 
knew. But while he was there he made a name 
and a fortune which were the envy of many a 
less successful sporting man. His penchant for 
and success at draw poker won for him the 
pseudonym of ^ Poker McCool/ and I venture to 
say if one were to take a trip down the river to- 



ANECDOTES OX POKER. 163 

day he would find a small army of ante-rebellion 
slayes wlio were either won or lost at poker by 
McCool. 

'^ McCool spent much of his time at New 
Orleans^ and he became a conspicuous equestrian 
figure there in time. He owned a big black 
stallion^ for which he paid $1000^ and when he 
w^as astride of the animal he was an attractiye 
object — he and the horse. He thought much of 
the animal and money could not haye touched 
him. Well^ on the afternoon I am speaking 
about McCool got into a poker game (good old 
draw poker it was) with a wealthy planter named 
Brady. If either McCool nor Brady belonged to 
a temperance organization^ and a feature of the 
game was the frequent turning of the ^ow card^ 
for a drink. It was about sundown when the 
deal began which ended the game and left 
McCool afoot and bankrupt. 

*^The deal was Brady\ and the first card 
had been giyen to each of them when Mc- 
Cool wanted a card turned for another round 
of drinks. Brady turned it^ and a four-spot 
fell to each. With a recklessness and gambling 
informality which had characterized the game 
throughout, McCool threw a large sum of money 
on the table and Brady called it. It seemed to 
be merely a bet before the draw, and the players 
tacitly understood in what naanner it would be 



164 ANECDOTES 0:^" POKER. 

won or lost. McCool called for another card to 
be turned and it was done. Each got a five-spot. 
McCool made another addition to the pot, which 
Brady covered, and a third card was turned. 
Each got a six. Up to this time the players had 
intended that, after deciding the question of 
drinks the draw should be proceeded with ; but 
now the game took another turn, and it was de- 
cided to settle the hands without drawing. The 
fifth card was accordingly turned, and it was a 
deuce. There was an immense pile in the pot, 
and the interest among the crowd, which was 
packed around the table, was so intense and the 
silence so deep that the ticking of the tall clock 
behind the bar sounded like a hammer striking 
on an anvil. Both men sat deeply absorbed in 
study. Mc Cool's buried card was a six-spot, and 
he was certain enough that his pair had Brady 
beaten. Brady^s buried card was a tray, and he 
had a straight and a sure thing. His credit, sit- 
ting behind that hand, was unlimited, and he 
was prepared to play it out. 

'^ The scene at this time was the most im- 
pressive that I believe I ever witnessed. I never 
saw an aggregation of men so thoroughly im- 
pressed with the fact that a tremendous stake 
hung in the balance. The betting proceeded 
slowly but heavily, until finally McCool had all 
his earthly possessions represented in the stake 



AKECDOTES OK POKEK. 165 

on the table except two objects. One of these 
was his stallion, who stood cham]3ing his bit on 
the street outside ; the other was his old negro 
slave, wdio stood holding the horse. Finally Mc- 
Cool ordered the negro to be brought in, and 
Brady deposited $2000 against him, at the same 
time raising McCool $5000. 

''''After some moments of cool study McCool 
told Brady that all he owned was on the table 
with the exception of his horse. He was willing 
to put him up against the last bet that Brady 
had made. The proposition was accepted and 
McCool ordered the horse to be led in, and he 
was. The interest which I have described as at- 
tending the game before now seemed intensified, 
if that were possible, and the picture there 
presented, with the faithful old slave standing 
by his master^s chair, the agony of the suspense 
which he was undergoing plainly depicted upon 
his face, the magnificent horse, who seemed all 
but conscious of the wealth at stake, and lastly 
the players and spectators, was one never to be 
forgotten. When the betting was at last over 
and nothing was lacking to decide the game but 
the appearance of the two buried cards, McCooi 
called for a glass of liquor. It was not until he 
had emptied this that he asked to see his op- 
ponents card. 

^MVhen it was shown down he silently got up 



166 AKECBOTES OK POKER. 

from the table and walked through the crowds 
which parted for his passage, out into the street. 
He never sat in a game that drew a crowd again, 
and it was but a few months from that time 
when he disappeared permanently from the 
river. He was the first man to lose big money 
at ' studhorse poker/ and he has had my respect- 
ful sympathy ever since. ^^ 

FAMOUS POKER CHIPS. 

^^ The most beautiful set of poker chips I ever 
heard of was made for the famous John Morris- 
sey, Congressman and State Senator. Before 
Morrissey started his famous Saratoga gambling 
house he had a place on Barclay Street in New 
York. While there a party of Western sports 
called on Morrissey and during the week man- 
aged to win about $30,000 from him. 

^''As they had been treated very elaborately and 
won so much they determined to give Morrissey 
some token of their distinguished consideration. 
After some discussion it was decided to have 
made the finest ^rack^ of poker chips that 
money could buy. The chips now in Washing- 
ton were the result of that determination. There 
were 1000 chips, with a few odd ones to make 
up for any that might be lost or broken. Upon 
each chip is a carving made by hand. On the 



ANECDOTES 0>^ POKER. 167 

white ones is a small figure without significance; 
on the others are carved the figures ' 5 ' and 
^ 25 Mn a center of red and yellow. Each chip 
is carved by hand and from the finest ^ heart ^ 
ivory that could be found in the city of New 
York. The total cost of the set was over $2000, 
or $2 apiece. 

^^ When they were given to Morrissey they were 
polished to the highest degree and shone and 
glistened in the light as though they were silver. 
The case which holds them is of rosewood, finely 
polished, and in the top is set a tiger couchant 
of polished brass, two enormous cat^s eyes being 
sunk in the head and giving it a peculiarly ani- 
mated appearance. N"ow, because the chips 
were given to him by winners, Morrissey thought 
it would be bad luck to use them in the same 
place, and in consequence they were not used 
until after Morrissey started his place in Sara- 
toga. 

^^ Then the superstition worked in accordance 
with the gambler^s idea, and the first time they 
were used in a heavy game Morrissey lost over 
150,000. Then he put them on exhibition and 
they were stolen within ten days. Some months 
afterward they were recognized in a Bowery 
pawn-shop, where the thief had pawned them 
for $75. Morrissey redeemed them, and shortly 
afterward they were stolen again. A young 



168 ANECDOTES OK POKER. 

Englishman who was doing the country bought 
them from the thief and carried them to Chicago. 
After the habit of young Englishmen^ the tourist 
in question became hard up and sold them to 
the present owner^ who brought them to Wash- 
ington^ where they have been for two years^ and 
have been played with by some of the heaviest 
poker players in the capital. I was shown them 
the other day^ and they bear no more signs of 
use than if they had been bought yesterday. ^^ 

HOW A GENERAL WON A POT. 

^^I heard a racy adventure of General Forrest^ 
the noted Southern cavalry commander during 
the war of the rebellion. He returned to Mem- 
j)his after the surrender with his wif e^ and with 
only a single $10 bill in his pocket. Mrs. For- 
rest was a lady of the most quiet, amiable 
Christian virtues, and the only person, by the 
way, who had any control of the ' wizard of the 
saddle^ while in a passion. One touch of her 
gentle hand, one soft, tender word would calm 
his most tempestuous mood in a moment. 

'^ Sitting alone together the night of their re- 
turn to Memphis, General Forrest said : ' Mary, 
I know you are a strict church member and have 
always opposed cards. But this $10 bill is all 
there is on earth between us and the poorhouse. 



ANECDOTES OK POKER. 169 

Won^t you consent to my going out to-night and 
hunting up a game of draw ? And won^t you 
pray that I may win while I am out ?"" 

" In vain the good woman protested. It was a 
sin in the sight of God^ she said, and sin could 
not finally prosper. He went, found the party 
he wanted, and began the game. The cards ran 
his way from the first, and his winnings grew so 
large that he set his beaver on the floor beside 
him and used it as a depository. About two 
o"* clock in the morning he lifted his tile, bent 
his head down and placed the hat carefully on it, 
retaining the money inside. Reaching home he 
emptied his winnings into Mrs. Forrest^ s lap, 
saying: ^Mary, count it.^ She found that he 
had upward of $1500 — a sum which gave him a 
good start in life, after having lost all. ' I be- 
lieve,^ said he, relating the incident to some 
friends, ' that Mary, in spite of her objections, 
really prayed for me while I was gone. At any 
rate I found her still sitting up when I got back, 
and I know her prayers have many a time served 
me a good turn. ^^^ 

FAMOUS OLD-TIME CARD PLAYERS. 

CLAY AND GALLATIN AT SEVEN-UP. 

Senator Beck, of Kentucky, is one of the best 
story-tellers in Congress. He went to school as 



170 AKECDOTES OK POKER. 

a boy at a college near Asliland, the residence of 
Henry Clay, and he described the other night a 
visit which a number of the college boys once 
made upon the old statesman. Said he : ^^ As 
Mr. Clay rose to meet us his face shone with 
smiles, and every boy in the party was straight- 
way his friend. In the course of the talk 
he asked us what we thought of his pictures. 
There were a number — some paintings and some 
engravings — hanging upon the walls in differ- 
ent parts of the room. We finally decided upon 
one, the picture of a woman holding a bowl of 
steaming mush in her hand, as the finest one in 
the collection. As we did so Mr. Clay laughed, 
and said : ^ Yes, boys, I think you have picked 
out my best picture, and as you have done so I 
must tell its history. I got that picture at 
Ghent, and in a curious way. Albert Gallatin, 
John Quincy Adams, and myself were there mak- 
ing the treaty, and Mr. Gallatin and myself took 
chances in a picture raffle. My prize turned out 
to be that picture,^ pointing to an inferior en- 
graving on the other side of the room, ^and 
Gallatin got this. Now, Gallatin knew very lit- 
tle about art, and I did not know very much, but 
I could see at a glance that his picture was far 
better than mine, and that I should be laughed 
at if we took the pictures home and compar- 
isons were ma^e. I saw that I must get hold 



AKECDOTES OK POKEE. 171 

of Gallatin's picture^ and I said to him : " Mr. 
Gallatin^ these two pictures were made to match 
each other^ and the man who has one ought to 
have both. Now, I will tell you what I will do. 
I will put my picture against yours, and we will 
play a game of cards for them. The man who 
wins shall take both pictures, and you may name 
the game.^^ 

'^ 'W\\ Gallatin thought a moment, consent- 
ed, and said ^^seven-np,^' " and,^^ continned Sen- 
ator Beck, '^1 can hear Henry Clay^s hearty 
laugh now and see his smile of intense merri- 
ment as he concluded : ^ As soon as Gallatin 
said seven-up I knew I had him. He knew but 
little about cards, and I was one of the best 
seven-uj) players in Kentucky. The result was 
as I had anticipated, and I got the picture.' '^ 

HOW CLAY WAS CHEATED AT CARDS. 

^^I heard a curious story of Clay while I was 
campaigning in the southern part of Ohio. It 
was told me at a little Ohio town, the name of 
which I do not remember now. Clay was ac- 
customed to stop over at this town on his way 
to Washington, and one night while he was 
here he became engaged in a game of poker 
with several men about the hotel to pass away 
the time. A professional gambler got into the 



172 ANECDOTES OK POKEK. 

party^ and cheated for some time without dis- 
covery. At last he laid down three aces, when 
Clay had two in his hand. Clay had been ac- 
customed to playing with gentlemen, and one of 
the poker party who told me the story said that 
his anger at this moment was terrible. He slow- 
ly drew himself out of his seat, and rose upward 
until he seemed about seventeen feet high. He 
drew his pistol, and the man made for the door. 
Clay did not follow him, but he expressed his 
indignation by walking around to his cliair and 
shooting a hole through its center. The gambler 
left the town instanter.^^ 

MR. ADAMS' JOKE. 

The President is quoted as having his favorite 
game. General Garfield was fond of euchre and 
whist, and there are a score of men now in the 
United States Senate who understand the most 
subtle intricacies of poker. Daniel Webster was 
a famous hand at euchre ; General Scott liked 
nothing better than a night at the whist table ; 
and Franklin Pierce knew how to play cards 
and liked them. In the days of Pierce the 
Presidents were more democratic than they are 
now. They walked about the town and paid 
visits to their friends in their rooms. An 
old stager, whose white hair was black while 



ANECDOTES 0:N^ POKER. 173 

President Pierce occupied the White House^ 
gave me an illustration of this to-night. Said 
he : '' At a dinner given by the American Com- 
missioners after the conclusion of the treaty, 
Henry Clay was sitting at the seat of honor at 
the right of the head of the table, and immedi- 
ately opposite him was sitting John Quincy 
Adams. Mr. Adams seldom made a joke, and 
when he arose and spoke as follows about Mr. Clay 
there was no man in the party more astonished 
than Clay. Said Mr. Adams : ' We have at 
last finished the business which called us to this 
convention, and I am glad of it. Not that our 
relations have not been pleasant, but I think it 
is high time that my friend Mr. Clay should 
depart. I think it to the interest of himself and 
family that he should go at once. Because, 
gentlemen, at the hotel at which we both stop 
there is a serving-maid, young, rosy, and fair to 
look upon. This fair girl was met by Mr. Clay 
this morning, just in the hall outside my room, 
and I distinctly heard him offer her a five-franc 
piece for a single kiss from her cherry lips. 
Like a good girl she scorned his offer, tore her- 
self from his embracing arms, and ran down the 
hall.' 

'^'^The assault was so unexpected that Clay 
blushed to his temples, and was for a moment 
at a loss for a reply. As John Quincy Adams 



174 ANECDOTES OIS" POKER. 

was closing, however, he noted the well-known 
weakness of Mr. Aclams^ eyes, which at all times 
were full of water, and kept him constantly busy 
mopping up the tears. While the attention of 
the table of diplomats was so directed at Mr. 
Clay, he pulled out his handkerchief and wiped 
his eyes with a significant imitation of Mr. 
Adams' gesture. He then slowly rose and said, 
as he looked up and down the table, and finally 
fixed his wandering orbs upon Mr. Adams^ face : 
' What the gentleman opposite me has said is all 
true. It is true that the girl is very beautiful. 
And it is true that her lips were very tempting 
to me. The story of my failure to pick the 
cherries is also true as far as it goes, but the 
whole of the story has not been told. I did 
offer the maiden five francs for a kiss, but as I 
attempted to take it she sprang from my em- 
brace and indignantly exclaimed : ^ Do you 
think I am such a fool as to give you a kiss for 
five francs, when Fve refused that old gentleman 
across the hall, who has offered me twenty with 
tears in his eyes ? ' 

^^The laugh was on Adams. He took the 
joke angrily, and for several days would not 
speak to Clay. Clay, however, went to him and 
apologized, saying that he had been dumfounded 
by Adams^ remark, and the more so because it 
contained more truth than fancy /^ 



Al^ECDOTES 01^ POKEK. 175 

HOW CLAY BEAT THROCKMORTON. 

*^ Another story about Clay^ so well authenti- 
cated that it comes to me almost directly from 
Henry Clay^s mouthy relates an adventure of his 
with old Throckmorton^ a noted hotel-keeper at. 
Louisville in Clay's day. Throckmorton was 
one of Mr. Clay's most intimate Kentucky 
friends. In their latter days the two were al- 
most inseparable^ and they often joined hands 
over the whist table. Throckmorton was a fine 
whist player^ and nothing irritated ^ him more 
than to have his game interrupted or spoiled by 
talking. Throckmorton generally beat Clay^ 
but Clay got ahead of him at a whist party in 
Louisville^ when he and Throckmorton were 
partners. The stakes were nominal — $1 a game, 
I think— and as soon as the party sat down at 
the table Clay began to tell stories. The result 
was that he paid no attention to his hand, and 
through his blunders trick after trick was lost. 
Throckmorton protested from time to time, 
finally saying : ^ Eeally, Mr. Clay, for a man of 
your ability, education, and reputation, you are 
the poorest whist player I have ever known. ^ 
The play continued the same way, and Throck- 
morton grew more and more angry. At last 
Clay said : ^ You are making more fuss by your 
objecting than I am by my stories. ISTow,^ and 



176 ANECDOTES OJ^ POKER. 

here he pulled out a $10 gold piece^ ^ we will 
each lay $10 on the table, and the man who talks 
first shall lose his money/ 

^^ To this Throckmorton consented, and the 
$20 were laid beside the stakes of $1 a side in 
the middle of the table. Clay then began to 
play worse than ever. He trumped Throck- 
morton^s ace and threw away his own suit until 
Throckmorton, who for some time had been 
gritting his teeth, rose, and, pushing the money 
at Clay, said : ^ Here, take your money. I am 
not going to let $20 stand in the way of my 
telling any such card-playing idiot as you are 
showing yourself to be what I think of him.^ 
He then went over Clay rough-shod. Clay 
laughed as he put the two gold pieces in his 
pocket, and the company laughed with him 
when he said that he had been trying for years 
to beat Mr. Throckmorton, and he was glad to 
feel that he had done so for once.^^ 

A GAME FOR A GIRL, 

A man from Louisville, who, of course, was 
called ^^ Colonel,"^ once told the following anec- 
dote : 

^^Fve nevah played any pokah, gentlemen, 
since befo^ the wah,^^ he began. '"^ I used to be, 
I reckon, one of the most incorrigible pokah 



ANECDOTES OK POKEK. 177 

playahs in the South. But I could afford it 
then^ and everybody played. I was a young 
fellow of twenty-fo' or twenty-five, owned one 
of the finest plantations in Kaintucky, and 
had a partnership in tobacco warehouses in Cin- 
cinnati and New Orleans. Tve lost ^em all, or 
most all, since — lost most of my property, in 
fact, with the cause. But at that time, the fall 
of ^58 or the spring of ^59, I was about as well 
fixed as any young man in the South. 

'^ My business used to take me a great deal to 
Cincinnati and New Orleans, as you may sup- 
pose, and I always went by boat. There were 
some great vessels on the river then, too — the 
old Natchez, the Eobert E. Lee, the Pensacola, 
and the old Hayes. They were' floating palaces, 
and the biggest games of pokah I evah sat in or 
evah expect to see were played in the smoking- 
rooms and saloons of those boats. There was a 
regular run of professional gamblers up and 
down the river, but they were gentlemen, gen- 
erally squah, as quick to defend their honah 
as any gentleman, and generally friends of the 
captains, who, they say, stood in with their 
winnings. 

" It was early in the fall of ^58, I believe, that 
I left Cincinnati on one of the down-river fliers 
at three one afternoon. There was a good pas- 
senger list and considerable merchandise aboard, 



178 ANECDOTES OK POKER. 

Among the merchandise I had about twenty as 
likely mules as evah was foaled that I was goin^ 
to carry to New Orleans an^ sell. Among the 
passengers was an old gentleman from Vahginny 
with his daughter, a mighty fine-lookin^ girl of 
twenty, and her maid, a likely-lookin^ quadroon 
girl about the same age. I noticed ^em that 
night an^ the next day, foh there wasn^t any 
game till the folks sort of got acquainted along 
down about Cairo. The young lady was mighty 
fond of that nigger girl and the maid was mighty 
devoted to her. 

"^^The night after we left Cairo somebody pro- 
posed a little game, an^ I an^ the old man from 
Vahginny, who was a rich tobacco-planter, as I 
found out, agreed to sit in. The other members 
of the party were one of the regular gamblers, a 
fellow known as Colonel Somers, an^ a nigger- 
trader from down river somewhars. I had about 
$2000 on me an^ played with variable luck for an 
hour or so, till presently along come a jack-pot 
an^ broke me. 

'' Colonel Somers won it, an^ he pinched the 
old man pretty hard, too. I was a-goin^ to quit, 
but he said : ^ Stay in, sah. Yo^ credit is good 
with me foh the value of that twenty head of 
mules on the lowah deck/ An^ I stayed. My 
luck didn^t turn, though, an^ by two o^clock I 
had lost every one of those mules. I sat out au^ 



AKECDOTES OK POKER. 179 

watched the game. Presently the nigger-trader 
began to play some pretty hard kyards an' was 
gettin^ into Somers' roll right smart. It run 
along that way for awhile^ an/ his luck leavin^ 
him, he laid back an^ played ^em close, about 
$3000 ahead of the game. 

^^The old man from Vahginny had been 
a-losin^ steadily an^ seemed all of a sudden to 
get sort of desperate. He says : ' Gentlemen, 
Fm $4000 into this game ; I have no mo^ money, 
but I have a mighty likely niggah gal aboard 
that 1*11 put up at $1500 foh a few mo' jack-pots." 

'' They both consented, an" the play got pretty 
hot. It was mighty mean of the old man, I 
thought, bettin" his daughter's own maid, but 
he was a born gambler an' had that fiah in him 
that makes a man let go of his ovahcoat. 

^'^It was five in the morning when that game 
broke up, an' the old man didn't have a cent. 
The nigger-tradah had been cashin' his papah 
an" had made good to Somers. We went on 
deck, the ole man an' I feelin' pretty blue, he 
especially bein' all gone to pieces. '^I doan 
know what I'm a-goin' to do," he said to me. ^ I 
can get plenty of money in New Orleans, but 
that isn't heah, an' that niggah-trader gets off 
at Memphis. I'll have to give him the wench, I 
reckon, but it'll break Georgia's heart to part 
with her/ 



180 ANECDOTES 0]Sr POKER. 

^^Sure enough^ at Memphis the trader de- 
manded his property^ an" there was an awful 
scene. The old man pleaded with him to keep 
the girl thah till he could raise the money an^ 
come back^ an" even pretty Miss Georgia begged 
of him. But^ gentlemen, he wouldn"t do it. 
He insisted on havin" the girl. I hadn"t the 
money and couldn^t raise it in Memphis^ or I"d 
have offered it to him. But just as he was 
leadin" the pooh^ cryin" thing off the gang-plank 
up comes Somers^ who bows to Miss Georgia an" 
says : * Pardon me^ but if I can advance yo" 
father anything it"s at his service." The girl 
thanked him^ an" turned to the ole gentleman. 
He hated to take it^ but Somers insisted^ an" 
called the trader back. 

(( ' 1^11 give you yo" money foh that gal/ he 
says. 

'^ ^No^ thanks^ Gunnel : she about suits me, 
an" I reckon Fll keep her." 

'^ ' She is this young lady"s maid, an" she 
wants her/ urged Somers. ' Fll give you $2000 
foh her." 

^^^Not foh twice that/ said the trader. 
' She"s mine, an" Fm going to keep her." 

^^^If you do, it will be after Fm dead," says 
Somers, and'he steps forward an" gives the trader 
a slap across the mouth. Everybody grabbed 
"em, and it was decided that the affaih must be 



ANECDOTES ON POKEE. 181 

settled right. The trader stayed on the boat 
till we run to a woodyard six miles below Mem- 
phis. When we got there he an'' Somers^ the 
captain an^ me went ashore. The old gentleman 
wasn't allowed to go^ because he insisted on 
makin^ the fight his own^ an' as his daughter 
was alone except foh him we all couldn't per- 
mit it. 

^^ Pistols were chosen, an' I dropped the hat. 
Both went off at the same moment an' the 
trader dropped dead. Somers left his remains 
to be sent home on the up boat, with $1500 in 
notes and a letter to his folks, an' we all went 
aboard the boat again an' on to New Orleans. 

'^ The old gentleman paid Somers there, an' 
his daughter held both his hands an' thanked 
him with tears in her eyes. The old man an' 
I swore off poker-playin' right there together, 
an' I've nevah played since. 

''^0, Somers didn't marry the girl, gentle- 
men ; he had a wife in Cincinnati. He went 
back home, an' when the wah broke out went 
into the business of runnin' cotton past the block- 
ade an' got rich. I've seen him several times 
since. He's a prominent merchant of New Or- 
leans now, an' doesn't gamble. That game broke 
three of us of the habit — fo' in fact, foh the 
tradah nevah played kyards again," 



182 AKECDOTES ON POKER. 

"YOU CANT BLUFF ME." 

In Richmond^ Va., not long since, the story 
of a great poker game at Savannah, Ga., was 
told. A party of five met in one of the private 
parlors of the Scriven House to have a little 
^^dravv/^ Three were cotton merchants, one an 
extensive manufacturer of fertilizers, and the 
fifth a hotel proprietor blessed with a super- 
abundance of wealth. The whole five were 
^^ solid men/^ or, as the Yankee farmer says, 
^^ All wool, and a yard wide,^^ whose checks were 
good for any amount. Often during the game 
these same checks were piled up when all the 
ready money at the board was staked on a hand. 
One of the players, generally a hard man to beat 
on account of his perfect coolness and unbounded 
pluck, seemed to be unusually unlucky on this 
occasion, and before the game had become fairly 
hot he had lost something over $10,000. Bid- 
ing his time, the ^' Major '^ waited until several 
stiff '^'^ antes ^' had been made, and when it came 
his turn to put up, he laughingly remarked : 
'' Gentlemen, this game is going a little slow. 
Fll make it $1000 to play.'' Three of the others 
saw it, and when his turn came, the Major raised 
the blind $1000. This was also ''seen'' by the 
others. The Major drew one card for a flush 
and made a pair of deuces. The second man 



AKECDOTES OK POKER. 183 

drew three carcls^ the third one eard^ and the 
fourth two cards. Each of the others bet a 
''chip/^and the Major $5000. The second and 
third men dropped^ but the fourth^, remarking, 
^'^ Major, yon can't bluff me/' raised him $5000. 
Without moving a muscle of his face, the Major 
drew out his book and writing a check for 
$25,000, threw it on the pile, saying : ^'It jou 
think I'm bluffing, come and see that." This 
was too much for the fertilizer and he laid down 
three kings, while the Major scooped in the 
$42,000. 

A GAMBLER'S TRICK. 

Senor Cooper, a Mexican onyx king, said 
this one evening : ^^ Poker is a seductive game, 
and so I never play it. Still, I know the fine 
points of the game. One time I was going to 
Europe in a steamer and witnessed a remarkable 
game of poker. Some men are born cautious 
and keep cool under trying circumstances. A 
well-known lawyer, noted for his scientific way 
of betting at the poker table, was one of the 
principals in the game on this steamer. Three 
other men, supposed to be gentlemen, but one 
was a professional gambler in disguise, were en- 
gaged in the game. It was one of those five- 
dollar-ante games w^ith no limit. A one-hun- 
dred-dollar bet on a pair of trays or deuces was 



184 AKEODOTES ON POKER. 

not uncommon. I knew the lawyer and wanted 
to tell him that I suspected he was playing 
against one sharp at leasts but I could not get 
the opportunity. On the afternoon of the first 
day of the poker game a group of interested 
spectators stood around the table. I was behind 
the lawyer^s chair. The betting was lively, and 
the lawyer won $2000 in ten minutes, and 
chiefly from the sharper. I saw that the gam- 
bler was losing on purpose to bait the lawyer 
and make a big winning. The gambler dealt 
the cards and the lawyer got three aces. He 
drew one card and got another ace. 

'^ Only the five-dollar antes were up and the 
lawyer sat there with four aces in his hand, the 
biggest hand that could be dealt except a royal 
sequence flush, which they had agreed not to 
play when they began the game. The other 
players passed out and the lawyer carelessly bet 
$5. A little hesitancy on the part of the gam- 
bler and he coolly went $2500 better. The law- 
yer suspected trickery, but where could it be? 
He held four aces, an invincible hand, and yet 
the gambler evidently knew what he was doing 
to bet so large a sum. It was a trying situation. 
No one spoke. The lawyer counted out $2500, 
but did not put it up. He paused and carefully 
looked at his five cards again. In an absent- 
minded way he skinned the five cards through 



ANECDOTES OK POKER. 185 

his hand^ when lo ! the trick was exposed. The 
lawyer had been given six cards by the sharp. 
The sixth card was carefully glued to the fifth 
card^ and as the cards were made of fine^ thin 
linen, the double thickness was scarcely notice- 
able. Any player having over five cards when 
hands are called loses or forfeits all of his 
rights, even if he has put up all of his money. 
Well, the gambler's four-ace trick was exposed, 
and the game closed by the lawyer denouncing 
him as a blackleg and cheat. It takes nerve to 
keep from betting four aces. Only a shrewd 
lawyer would have detected the trick. '^ 

A STRAIGHT FLUSH VS. FOURS. 

A big game of poker was played on St. 
Simon's Island, Ga., once. The principal play- 
ers were ISTortherners who came over from Sa- 
vannah for a day. After an hour or so of play, 
with scarcely enough difference in fortune to 
w^arm up the players, a jack-pot was made which 
was not broken until four or five deals had 
swelled it to handsome proportions. Young 
John Z. Merritt, finding three queens in his 
hand, threw in a twenty-dollar gold piece with 
great confidence. Jay Hugh Bolton examined 
his hand and found a pair of jacks and the ten, 
nine, and seven of diamonds, one of his jacks 



186 AKECDOTES ON POKER. 

being also of that suit. With the alternative of 
drawing to his four-flush, Bolton remarked that 
it would cost $50 to play and posted the cash. 
All the players threw up their hands except 
Merritt, who merely saw the raise. Mr. Merritt 
took one card and got his fourth queen. Mr. 
Bolton split his jacks, and drawing to his four- 
flush took in the eight of diamonds, making his 
hand a straight flush. Mr. Merritt casually re- 
marked that his hand was worth $1000 and put 
that amount in the pot. 

^^My hand is worth $5000/' said Mr. Bolton, 
in a tone whose nervousness caused Mr. Merritt 
to think that perhaps an attempt to bluff was in 
progress. 

'^^Five thousand more/' said Mr. Merritt. 

^^ Fifteen thousand more/' Mr. Bolton re- 
torted. 

'^ Thirty thousand more/' responded Merritt. 

Bolton deliberated a minute, threw an I U 
to balance the pot and said, ''I call." ^^Four 
queens," said Merritt, reaching out for the 
stakes. '' Not so fast, if you please — a straight 
flush," said Mr. Bolton. Mr. Merritt's face 
fell and Mr. Bolton pocketed his winnings, 
something over $45,000 on that hand. 



AKECDOTES 02^ POKEE. 187 

HOW A GAME WAS INTERRUPTED. 

'^'^ Well^ I have seen some big poker games at 
Albany while I was an Assemblyman/^ said 
Smith M. Weed. '' The most amusing game of 
poker I know of occurred during the war at the 
Delavan House^ Albany^ in room 454. The lafce 
Jacob Sharp^ of Broadway surface railroad 
notoriety^ was the occupant of room 454^ and he 
sat around the table with Harry Genet^ Henry 
Smith, and others whom I do not care to men- 
tion. Of course there was a great deal of war 
excitement and the Federal forces were ham- 
mering away at Kichmond, Va. These poker 
players were locked in and betting heavily. 
They were oblivious to war and rumors of war 
while engaged in such an absorbing game. 

'^ The news came that Eichmond had fallen, 
and a certain Assemblyman rushed along the 
corridor with several others to the door of room 
454. Finding it locked, in an instant the As- 
semblyman was boosted to the skylight or tran- 
som just above the door. He got half way in, 
balanced for a brief moment, and without warn- 
ing his friends pushed him headlong into the 
room. He fell right across the center of the 
table, the chips flew in every direction, and 
$5000 in bills tumbled all over the floor. The 
legs of the table snapped in two like straws, and 



188 ANECDOTES 01^ POKER. 

the lucky Assemblyman was on his feet in an 
instant unhurt. At that moment the door was 
pushed open^ and before a dollar could be picked 
up the room was filled with men. The poker 
players got their money, but great excitement 
prevailed, and much amusement was extracted 
from the players, who, of course, did not fancy 
the rude way they were interrupted, even if 
Eichmond had fallen/^ 

"DIGGER" MIKE AND FRANK PAYTON. 

A noted man about town in New York once 
related this experience to me : 

^^ I saw a poker game once that I never will 
forget. It was in Park City, Utah, in 1865, 
when the mining boom in the Mormon territory 
was at its height. One night I dropped into 
Howard^'s place to see a friend, and while stand- 
ing at the bar my attention was drawn to a re- 
mote corner of the room by a crowd of men, who 
seemed to be very much interested in something 
there. The bar-tender told me that ^ Digger^ 
Mike and Frank Payton, a miner and a gambler, 
were playing poker, and, knowing both men 
well, I concluded that I^d watch them a few 
minutes. So I walked over to the corner and 
took up a position where I could see the players. 
^ Digger ^ had five or six stacks of checks and a 



ANECDOTES OK POKER. 189 

big pile of bags containing gold-dust^ in all about 
$6000 in front of him, while Payton had about 
$7000. Both men played cautiously for a while 
until there was a jack-pot, which ^ Digger^ 
opened with a bag of his gold-dust. Payton 
stayed and raised him $250, which the *^ Digger^ 
saw and went $500 (in gold-dust) better. Payton 
just called this, and then skinned his hand and 
asked for one card. ^ Digger^ dealt it to him 
and then threw $500 worth of his dust into the 
pot, remarking : ^I don^t want any.'' 

^^ Payton skinned his hand again, and after 
going through the usual motions of looking at 
his antagonist for a few minutes, he saw the 
$500 and went it $500 harder. ' Digger ' was more 
prompt in raising this four bags of dust, and 
Payton even more promptly saw the raise and 
went it $2000 better. Neither man was the least 
bit nervous according to all outward signs, 
though each had all his earthly possessions in 
front of him and in the pot. They continued to 
raise each other as they made bet after bet, until 
the '^Digger' shouted for a show-down, saying 
he couldn^t call another cent. Both hands went 
down on the board at the same moment, and 
then Payton reached over and began to scoop in 
the gold-dust and checks. He had a pair of 
fours, while the ^ Digger ' had been bluffing on a 
kilter. ^ I didn't think you had nerve enough 



190 Al^ECDOTES OK POKER. 

to follow me^ Frank/ was all he said as he got up 
from the table to leave the place to go back to 
the diggings to toil for more gold-dust. The 
sequel of the game is interesting. Payton left 
the saloon, toO;, after disposing of his winnings 
to his satisfaction, and that was the last time he 
was ''seen until his body was picked up a week or 
two later in a ravine about a mile from Howard^s. 
His skull was crushed and his money all gone, 
showing that he had fallen a victim to somebody^s 
cupidity. His murderer w^as never discovered. ^^ 

*^ AIN'T YOU BETTING A LEETLE HIGH?" 

Jim Joralemon was a Mississippi Eiver steam- 
boat clerk and something of a poker player in an 
amateur way. One night when he arrived in 
N"ew Orleans — about a year ago it was — he was 
introduced by a friend of his to a poker party at 
a private club. Jim went into the game quite 
innocently and played away until he had lost 
$300 or f400, every cent he had in the world. 
About this time he began to find out that, 
although the game was high, very little money 
was being put up — in fact, every one was 
playing more or less on wind. This made Jim 
mad, for he saw that he had lost his money 
without having a show to win any. So he 
turned the thing about in his mind for a while 



A:srECDOTES o:sr pokek. 191 

to see how lie could get back what he had lost. 
Finally there came a big jack-pot which a man 
named Wilkins^ or Bilkins, who sat on the op- 
posite side of the table^ opened for a considerable 
amount. Jim came in^ and, after the draw, 
raised it. 

^^I raise you $500/^ said Bilkins, throwing an 
I II for that amount into the middle of the 
table. 

Jim combed over his cards carefully. He had 
only a joair of deuces ; but he was as grave as a 
judge, and, for all you could tell, he might have 
had four aces in his hand. 

^^I raise you $30,000,^^ he said, and threw a 
piece of paper with his autograph on it into the 
pot. His w^orldly wealth at that moment con- 
sisted of just twenty-five cents in cojDpers. 

Mr. Bilkins turned a trifle pale. ^^ Ain't you 
betting a leetle high, Mr. Joralemon ? '^ he in- 
quired, with some hesitation. 

^^No higher than Fm in the habit of betting, 
Mr. Bilkins/^ replied Jim, cool as a cucumber. 

Mr. Bilkins Avas staggered. He laid down his 
hand — it had three kings in it — and Jim raked 
in the boodle. There was about $350 cash in it, 
besides the I U^s. So Jim excused himself, 
saying he had an engagement, and got out, de- 
lighted to escape with his original capital. 



192 ANECDOTES OK POKER. 



A STORY FROM VIRGINIA CITY. 

They had a poker game once in Virginia City, 
Nevada, in the back room of Jicarilla Bob^s place, 
who was present to see that everything was fair. 
The men at the table were Tom Sinsabaugh, a 
cattle dealer, and Potter Abert, Omaha Throup, 
and Pap Williams, gamblers. The game had been 
going along for some time without much excite- 
ment and with no very large winnings, when sud- 
denly Pap Williams, who had thrown down two 
cards, offered to go it blind for $50. The others 
saw him, and a crowd that had assembled at the 
bar moved over to see how the thing would come 
out. All the others drew three cards each. Will- 
iams ran his cards over carelessly, called for a 
drink, and, with a cigar in one corner of his 
mouth, said he would bet $50. All the others 
stayed in, and on the show-down, no one mani- 
festing a disposition to raise it, it appeared that 
there were five aces out, Pap Williams having 
three and Potter Abert two. This discovery 
came very near resulting in war, but at the sug- 
gestion of Jicarilla Bob the pot was left up and 
a new deal was had, he taking the extra ace and 
tearing it up. 

After the new deal Abert called for four cards, 
Sinsabaugh for three, Throup for three, and 
Williams for two. There was now more than 



a:n'ecdotes ok pokek. 193 

$400 in the pot^ and as Abert offered to bet $50 
the others felt that they would have to see him. 
When it came around to Abert again he con- 
cluded to raise the terms a little^ and he put up 
$100. This caused old man Sinsabaugh to draw 
out, with the remark that the water was getting 
too deep for a man with a little pair. The other 
two saw the raise and called. Down came the 
cards, and almost simultaneously with their ap- 
pearance was the crack of a revolyer, and Potter 
Abert fell out of his chair, while Pap Williams, 
gun in hand, reached over and swept in the 
pile of money. On the table in front of where 
Abert was lying were five cards, three of them 
aces, while in front of Williams were two aces, 
one of them being a duplicate of one in the 
hand of the man under the table. 



A JOKE ON FLORENCE. 

Mr. W. J. Florence, the well-known actor^ 
relates this anecdote : 

^^ While poker is considered a national game, 
I must confess that I have seen it played chiefly 
in an international way, i, e., on board British 
steamships carrying American passengers. I 
only play cards en route to Europe to pass away 
the time — nothing else, and then I do not 
gamble. Once^ some years ago, I was playing a 



194 ANECDOTES 0:tT POKEE. 

theatrical engagement in Louisville, Ky., and I 
was invited to visit and participate in a late 
Slipper after the performance was over. Among 
those who were to be at supper was Henry 
Wagstaff. The theatrical performance was very 
long and it was near midnight when I reached 
the bachelor apartments. I had no sooner 
arrived than I noticed some little excitement 
among the gentlemen present. It seems that 
a game of draw had ended and a count was 
being made of moneys. I had no alternative 
but to await developments, and they came soon 
enough. A big dispute arose across the table, 
and in an instant Wagstafl was on his feet, 
pistol in hand, and trying to aim at his antag- 
onist, a well-known gentleman. I knew that 
blood was going to be shed right there, so I 
jumped up and threw my arms around the 
editor. Others caught his arm and kept it up 
so if the pistol were discharged it would only 
damage the ceiling. 

^^The other gentleman was ferocious, and al- 
though he was held by strong men I thought he 
would break loose every second and fire right 
into us. Great beads of perspiration stood out 
upon my forehead. I pleaded with the Ken- 
tuckian not to shoot : that he would regret it. 
The more I pleaded and tried to keep his pistol 
arm up the more he attempted to break away. 



AKECDOTES OX POKEE. 195 

Every instant I expected to hear the cracky 
crack of revolvers and to see the reeling form of 
a man perforated with a large bullet. I pictured 
the direful consequences and the blame. The 
latter would partially j, at leasts rest upon me^ 
because I was the guest of the evening and the 
gathering was in my honor. In our struggle to 
keep the two men apart tables w^ere overturned, 
chairs were knocked down, and the money on the 
table somehow disappeared like magic. Finally 
I caught Wagstaff^s pistol in my hand ; and 
then the lamentable truth flashed like an electric 
shock through me^ to wit : I was being guyed 
and the whole fight was concocted to fool me. 
The pistol was nothing but a bootjack, one that 
is small and when folded resembles the shape of 
a pistol. I was completely taken in, and I need 
scarcely say that the ^ smiles^ were on me. 
That was the most exciting game of poker that 
I ever indulged in/^ 



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